Iron bridge and endotoxins.

"One morning last week, when four or five men - including some from the state government's Irrigation Department - turned up in Amiyavar village, near the city of Sasaram, with an earth excavator and gas cutting torches, local villagers were happy," BBC. "For three days, the men would arrive at 7am and work until dusk, chipping away at the remains of the bridge, cutting the iron with gas torches and using excavators to loosen the earth. The metal was then transported in a hired van and deposited at the warehouse of a local scrap dealer." It was a heist. The bridge was 60ft (18m) long and 12ft high. Police were quick to act. "Bihar police on April 10, 2022 arrested eight persons including a Sub Divisional Officer (SDO) of the water department in connection with the theft of the 60-foot abandoned bridge in the Rohtas district," Zee. Police recovered 247 kg of iron. "For decades, Mohammad Shahabuddin ruled Bihar's Siwan with an iron fist, the master of a criminal empire who had slain dozens," The Print. He had been Member of Parliament for the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), wikipedia, and had also been in the Janata Dal (JD), both of which have been ruling Bihar for decades in coalition with other parties, Outlook. Since he died of Covid-19 his wife is feeling threatened by his hitman Raees Khan and his brother Ayub Khan who want to take over his turf. "Over the period 2004 to 2019, the share of criminal politicians in Lok Sabha elections has sharply risen, especially after 2014; 24% of the winners in the 2004 polls had a criminal background, this share rose to 30% in the 2009 general elections, 34% in 2014 and 43% in 2019," wrote Vani S Kulkarni & Raghav Gaiha. India's official death toll due to Covid-19 has been put at 500,000, Reuters, but some researchers put the toll at over 4 million, TOI. Over 1.9 million children lost at least one parent or caregiver, ET. Some of these deaths would have been due to endotoxins in Cadilla's remdesiver injections, batch number V100167, wrote Priyanka Pulia. While regulators in other states, including in Gujarat where the drug was being manufactured, did nothing, it was Bihar's regulator who sent samples to the government's Central Drugs Laboratory in Kolkata where the samples were discovered to contain endotoxins. Bihar regulator has filed a complaint in Patna civil court. Politicians could not get away with crime if civil servants were diligent and honest. The Indian Administrative Service (IAS), the heir of the British Indian Civil Service (ICS) has total control over the administration of the central and all state governments in India, wikipedia. "The public perception of the IAS is of an elitist, self-serving, status quo perpetuating set of bureaucrats who are out of touch with reality, who wallow in their privileges and social status and have lost the courage of conviction to stand up for what's right," wrote former IAS officer Duvvuri Subbarao. Without at least passive connivance of civil servants it would be impossible for politicians to indulge in any criminal act. It's everywhere.