Four of the 61 trucks that vanished with 400 tonne explosives over four months were found – but thoroughly cleaned out – on Friday night in Rajgarh district of Madhya Pradesh.
A police team seized the vehicles parked in front of a local trading company, BM Traders, at Pipala village of Beoara Tehsil of Rajgarh district, 150 km north of Bhopal.
The trucks were sent from Rajasthan Explosives and Chemicals Ltd (RECL) to a trading company in Sagar, Ganesh Magazine, between April and July.
Following a Hindustan Times exclusive on Friday, the Union Home Ministry expressed concern and asked the MP administration for a report on the missing trucks.
Leader of the police team Inspector Jayendra Singh Parihar said the explosives were unloaded somewhere between Dholpur in Rajasthan and Sagar.
While three of the seized trucks were from Bhilwara, the fourth one is owned by Devendra Thakur, one of the two partners in Ganesh Magazine.
Although the Rs 1.5-crore deal was clinched on Thakur’s explosives trading licence, he told the police that he had got it cancelled in March, as he was not getting along with his partner, Jai Kishan Aswani, who comes from the same area where the trucks were found.
{{/usCountry}}Although the Rs 1.5-crore deal was clinched on Thakur’s explosives trading licence, he told the police that he had got it cancelled in March, as he was not getting along with his partner, Jai Kishan Aswani, who comes from the same area where the trucks were found.
{{/usCountry}}The anti-terrorism squad of Rajasthan Police, engaged on Friday evening, suspects that the explosives might have been sold to miners in Bhilwara and Rajsamand districts in Rajasthan or even to Maoists in Andhra Pradesh.