Bihar recorded the biggest haul of explosives recovery when the Rohtas police on Monday seized 251 quintals of Ammonium Nitrate powder, used in the making of Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) from Bara village, nearby Sasaram, the district headquarters.
A police team, acting on a tip off, raided a village godown and seized the huge haul of explosives, gelatin sticks and Bolero jeep parked outside. The police team also arrested three persons in this connection.
Rohtas SP Vikas Vaibhav said that the police team on getting the information that some suppliers were carrying explosives in a Bolero jeep to Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh, intercepted them near Fazalganj on the Grand Trunk Road, near the Bihar Uttar Pradesh border. “They seized 500 kilograms of Ammonium Nitrate powder and arrested two person- Mahendra Singh Patel and Santosh Patel,” he said.
After interrogation, the arrested persons revealed that a huge stock of Ammonium Nitrate was kept in a godown in Bara village. The police team immediately raided the godown, owned by one Mantosh Singh, and recovered 24,600 kilograms of Ammonium Nitrate stored in 492 bags. The police also arrested Mantosh in this connection.
On interrogation, the arrested persons claimed that they used to supply the explosives to stone quarries, situated in and around the Sasaram town and nearby quarries of Uttar Pradesh and that they had no connection with the Maoists.
{{/usCountry}}On interrogation, the arrested persons claimed that they used to supply the explosives to stone quarries, situated in and around the Sasaram town and nearby quarries of Uttar Pradesh and that they had no connection with the Maoists.
{{/usCountry}}The police officers, who conducted the raid including ASP RK Mishra and Inspector NK Mishra, said that such a huge quantity of ammonium nitrate and Gelatin sticks were not needed by the quarries. Moreover, the quarries had no license to purchase or store such high-grade explosives, they added. The Rohtas region, of late, has become the area of heightened Maoists activities.
The police had also seized 5000 detonators from Dehri-on-Sone, 440 kilograms of Ammonium Nitrate from Dhavdand and 45 kilograms of Ammonium Nitrate and gelatin sticks from Bara village itself last month. The recovery of huge explosives today has established the fact that Kaimur range in Rohtas has become the centre of Maoists activities.