Karnataka Guns Stolen in Riot Found in TN

SALEM: Days after an angry mob from the border villages of the State ransacked the check post at Palar manned by the Karnataka forest officials before escaping with four guns and ivory tusks, the Kolathur police here recovered the arms and a tusk from a forest location during a search operation on Monday.

The arms and the tusk were allegedly robbed by Tamils during a protest over the death of a suspected poacher in a shoot-out by the Karnataka forest officials on Friday last. On Monday, the Kolathur police reportedly found the guns and sent them for identification. On Tuesday, officials confirmed that the recovered arms were those taken away by rioters from border villages in Kolathur block of Mettur Taluk. The recovered arms include ‘315’ 12 bore guns and DBBLs (double barrels). Steps have been initiated to hand the arms over to the Judicial Magistrate court.

Meanwhile, the M M Hills police in Karnataka booked a case against an unspecified number of persons from Tamil Nadu and also lodged a complaint with the Kolathur police against them for rioting, setting a forest department motorbike on fire at the Palar check post manned by the Karnataka forest department and taking away four guns and two tusks from the Palar forest range office.

Mettur DSP M Ravikumar said, “It has been established that the guns belong to Karnataka forest department. The information has been communicated to the M M Hills police station and they will take further action.”

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