BHOPAL: A team of Madhya Pradesh Police’s Anti-Terror Squad (MP ATS) is in Punjab to track a suspect who could be among the two men who decamped with two INSAS rifles from Army Education Centre in Panchmarhi town of Madhya Pradesh early on December 6.
Ongoing probe strongly suggests that one of the two men booked for theft of the two assault rifles from the sentries at the Army Education Centre on December 6, could be a serving havaldar posted presently in Hoshiarpur (Punjab).
The suspect who was spotted in the CCTV footages retrieved from a roadside dhaba in Pipariya town in Hoshangabad district on December 6 is possibly deployed as a member of Army’s musical band in Hoshiarpur.
The suspect is believed to have undergone a two months training at the Army Education Centre’s music band wing in Pachmarhi town in the past, owing to which he was well acquainted with that place and ultimately managed to dupe the two sentries there and decamp with the two INSAS rifles and ammunition at around 2.30 am on December 6.
The suspect and his unidentified aide had boarded a Taxi from the Pipariya railway station in Hoshangabad district at around 12.15 am on December 6. Before boarding the taxi, the suspect (possibly the Army havaldar) had withdrawn money from an ATM near Pipariya railway station, owing to which the cops managed to track his identity by detailed probe of transactions through that ATM.
The duo had subsequently zipped in the taxi to hill station Panchmarhi (55 km from Pipariya) and then posing selves as army officers duped the two jawans on sentry duty at the Army Education Centre gate leading to the music band training facility and subsequently decamped with the two INSAS rifles and 20 live rounds.
A case of theft u/s 380 has been registered in connection with the crime against the two unidentified men and the MP ATS team is already in Punjab as part of investigations, said a senior MP Police officer.