BALANGIR: Police arrested three persons and seized a huge cache of explosives from their possession at Sadaipali and Dunguripali villages here on Thursday. The arrested are Sudam Mahaling of Sadaipali, Mahesh Agrawal and Murarilal Agrawal of Kantabanji.
Sources said on a tip-off, Balangir Sadar police raided the house of Sudam at Sadaipali in Turekela block and seized gelatin, ammonium nitrate and detonator which are used in making of explosives. A cash of `2.32 lakh was also seized from the house.Similarly, Belpara police raided the godown of Murarilal in Dunguripali and seized 27 bags electrical explosives.
The seized items from Sadaipali include 106 bundles of safety fuse, 38 bags of ammonium nitrate weighing around 15 kg, 83 kg of Gilotin, 13,527 detonators, 35,770 non-electrical detonators, 15 kg of charcoal power, 15 kg of sulphur powder and eight bundles of electric wire.
The explosives are used in stone quarries. There are a number of stone quarries in and around Balangir, Kantabanji, Titilagarh and Patnagarh towns. Kantabanji is notorious for illegal trading of explosives, sources said.
Balangir SDPO Narayan Naik said the seized explosives were illegally stored in the house of Sudam without licence. Further investigation is on.Incidentally, both Turekela and Belpara blocks are Maoist-prone areas. As several such godowns can be found in these areas, there is every possibility of the explosives falling into the hands of Maoists.