Army man held for involvement in dealing with military arms and ammos

Shillong, Dec 9: In a shocking incident, an army man was apprehended on Friday for being involved in dealing with military ammunition.

An overnight operation was conducted by military intelligence and police resulting in the apprehension of the accused army personnel, hailing from Mizoram. He was apprehended from 9th Mile Baridua in Ri Bhoi district of Meghalaya.

According to official sources, the accused is serving as a Junior Commission Officer (JCO) in 42 Rashtriya Rifles in Jammu and Kashmir and somehow managed to get his hands into the arms and ammunition. The illegal cache is also believed to have been smuggled from the Indian army’s armoury.

Sources said the accused somehow managed to hoodwink everybody and slipped the large cache from Jammu and Kashmir and was on his way to strife-torn Manipur to sell to some of the outfits there the arms and ammunition.

“Interrogation is on by the military intelligence if the suspect is actively linked to some of the militant outfits of this region and the network he is associated with and his ultimate motive,” the sources said.

Meanwhile, 1,052 AK 47 ammunition,7 LMG 7.62 mm, 14 INSAS 5.56 mm, 30 .32 pistol ammunition, 3 empty cases, 1 tear smoke grenade, 1 hand grenade, 1 INSAS Magazine, 3 AK-47 Magazines and 34 stamp seals of various government officials were confiscated from the army personnel.

Furthermore, a case has been registered against him at Khanapara Police Station under sections 120 B/468/405/420/380 of the IPC, r/w sec-27 Arms Act and r/w sec-51 Wild Life Protection Act.

Further investigations are underway to unravel the network associated with the accused and to ascertain the motives behind the possession of such a large quantity of ammunition.