Two cops suspected in theft of 4k cartridges from Bihar Police armoury surrender

The cops -- havildar Vijay Giri and Sanjay Sharma--were on the run since the offence was registered against them on July 1, 2018, in Muffasil police station in Samastipur district

Two cops, suspected of their roles in the theft of 4,000 cartridges and nine magazines from the Bihar Police armoury three years ago, surrendered in a Samastipur local court on Thursday evening.

Representational Image.

The cops -- havildar Vijay Giri and Sanjay Sharma--were on the run since the offence was registered against them on July 1, 2018, in Muffasil police station in Samastipur district.

Altogether 3,817 cartridges of 9mm, 110 bullets of rifle, 49 of AK47 and 26 of Insas rifle were missing from the armoury between June 2015 and June 2018. Samastipur police lodged FIR against 12 policemen, including then sergeant major Mithilesh Kumar Singh, armoury in-charge Bhola Prasad Choudhary, ASI Umashankar Singh, havildar Bachandeo Srivastava, and Ramashankar Singh.

During the investigation, police found direct role of former subedar Bhola Choudhary, Deonandan Das, Rajendra Giri, Umashankar Singh and Ashish Anand in the case. Havildar Ramashankar is said to have died during investigation.

It may be mentioned here that this is not the first incident of arms and ammunition going missing from a police station or police lines armoury in the state. On July 2, 2018, a cache of firearms, including a .303 rifle, two 9mm pistols and at least 150 rounds of bores, were missing from the armoury of police lines at Siwan.