E-Paper
The case of 100 missing bullets: Banda police lodge FIR 35 years after theft
Banda police have lodged an FIR into the reported theft of 100 live cartridges from a police station in Pailani, a dacoit-infested area, 35 years ago in 1988
Banda police have lodged an FIR into the reported theft of 100 live cartridges from a police station in Pailani, a dacoit-infested area, 35 years ago in 1988.
The police were probing to find the in charge of ‘maal-khana’ at the time as they believed that the latter could be responsible for the missing cartridges. Once found, the maal-khana in-charge might face arrest and a subsequent trial in court.
Additional SP Laxmi Niwas Mishra said the decision to register a case into the incident was taken after a two-year-long inquiry, the report of which was submitted to the Banda SP recently.
“The cartridges have not been found yet. A case has been lodged against then maal-khana in-charge. Action will be taken on the basis of the facts that will come to light in the investigation,” he said.
The ‘theft’ would have remained undetected had bullet stocks at police stations were not examined in order to provide new cartridges in 2021.
At a meeting in September 2021 with then Banda SP, the issue of these missing 100 bullets was formally discussed, and additional SP Mishra was assigned to conduct an inquiry.
SHO Pailani Kuldip Tiwari said the FIR was lodged under section 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant) against the unidentified maal-khana in-charge.
At the time of the incident, Pailani was a police post under Jaspura police station limits. According to sources, it was a central point of activities of several dacoit gang leaders, including Shiv Kumar Dadua. There are several examples of policemen replenishing bullet stocks of dacoit by stealing them from police stations and then selling them off for a good price.
