Panikoili police on Thursday seized 26 live hand-made bombs at Sahapur Chhak on National Highway-5 and arrested two persons in this connection. Police also seized two mobile phones and a motorcycle on which the explosives were being transported from their possession.
The arrested have been identified as Sitad Khan (39) and Subash Chandra Behera (35) of Madhapur village under Mahanga police station in Cuttack district. They were carrying the bombs from Mahanga to Jajpur Road in the district.
“On a tip-off, a police team followed the two persons and managed to nab them at Sahapur along NH and seized 26 bombs from them,” said Deepak Kumar, Jajpur SP.
The SP suspected that the bombs were procured to use those in the ongoing urban body election in Jajpur Road.
District police got all the seized bombs defused by a special squad. The accused were produced in the local court on Friday and later remanded to jail custody after their bail applications were rejected.
Head Maulavi in Vigilance Net
Cuttack Vigilance sleuths on Thursday arrested a head maulavi, Shaik Shams Tabez of Panjekan Madrasa, at Alkund in Binjharpur block of the district on graft charges.
According to Vigilance sources, Tabrez was caught red-handed while demanding and accepting a gratification of ` 25,000 from Firoz Khan, assistant teacher of the same Madrasa.
Tabez had demanded the money for updating Firoz’s service book to facilitate his pay fixation as per the guidelines of Sixth Pay Commission.
Basing on Firoz’s complaint, a trap was laid by the Vigilance sleuths and the entire amount was recovered from Tabez. He was produced in the Vigilance court on Friday.