india

Updated: Jan 23, 2020 06:55 IST

Eighteen licensed firearms deposited by citizens at Lalgarh police station in Bengal’s Jhargram were stolen by an assistant sub-inspector, Amitkumar Bharat Rathod, superintendent of police, Jhargram district, said on Wednesday. Rathod did not want to reveal the type of weapons stolen but said some were shotguns.

The accused officer, Tarapada Tudu, was arrested and remanded in police custody for five days by the assistant chief judicial magistrate of Jhargram on Wednesday afternoon. Police also arrested Lakshmiram Rana, a jawan of the national volunteer force, and two villagers, Sudhanshu Senapati (75) and his son Dilip Senapati (52) as accomplices in the crime.

Rathod said, the licensed firearms were deposited by people at Lalgarh police station either because of law and order problems in certain areas or following deaths of the legal owners. Lalgarh used to be a hotbed of Maoist activity for more than a decade till Bengal’s top Maoist leader Koteswar Rao alias Kishenji was killed in an encounter with the police after Trinamool Congress came to power.

“The theft was detected when the stocks were being checked. We started an inquiry and found that Tudu was in charge of the Lalgarh police station malkhana where seized arms are kept. Tudu was arrested from Jamboni where he is now posted. The father and son duo brought people to the police station who posed as owners of those firearms and took them away one by one,” said Rathod.