BELAGAVI: A day after AK-47 rifles were found in a boat in Maharashtra’s Konkan belt which created a flutter across the country, it has come to light that two AK-47 rifles have been stolen from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) training campus in Belagavi, on Friday.
Authorities in-charge of the campus, which is located at Halbhavi on the outskirts of Belagavi, have launched an intense search operation on the premises. The two missing AK-47 rifles had been provided to two trainees from ITBP Madurai who are undergoing Naxal Suppression Training at the campus. When the two rifles could not be traced, the authorities lodged a complaint with the Belagavi police on Friday.
Barrack houses 120 men
According to the complaint, the rifles were provided to Rajesh Kumar and Sandeep Meena from Madurai ITBP during the ongoing 48th Pre-Induction Training (for deployment in anti-Naxal operation). The rifles were stolen from the 3rd floor of the barrack which houses 120 men, possibly on the intervening night of August 16-17.
According to Manish Punetha and Mohd Aslam, roommates of Kumar and Meena, Aslam had seen the two firearms on August 17 in the barrack. The ITBP, in the complaint, informed the police that it has interrogated all the four - Kumar, Meena, Punetha and Aslam but found no clue.
DCP (Crime), P V Sneha said, “A team of Belagavi police has launched an investigation inside and outside the ITBP campus. Our officials are collecting technical evidences and taking fingerprints as part of the preliminary investigation.’’
The Belagavi police team and the ITBP officials will jointly question several inmates of the campus, said Sneha, adding that she was supervising the probe, which is headed by Assistant Commissioner of Police, S V Girish.
PROBE LAUNCHED
A team of Belagavi police has launched a probe inside and outside the ITBP campus. Officials are collecting technical evidence and fingerprints