Bolangir: Acting on a tip-off, a special squad of the district police busted an illegal explosive trading racket even as it seized 38 sacks of ammonium nitrate and other explosives and arrested three persons including the BJP’s Kantabanji unit president in this connection, police said Thursday.
Rs 2.32 lakh was also seized during the raid. The accused were identified as Murari Lal Agarwal, a trader and BJP’s Kantabanji Mandal president, his son Mahesh Agarwal in Kantabanji and trader Sudam Mahaling of Sadaipali village.
The arrest of Murarai Lal and his son has triggered sparks in political circles. A case was registered in this connection and the three were produced in court. Meanwhile, police launched a manhunt to nab the mastermind of the racket.
This was stated here in two press meets addressed by SDPO Narayan Nayak at Sadar police station in Bolangir and Patnagarh SDPO Seshadev Bariha at Belpada police station Thursday.
The police said that they had learnt about the illegal trading of explosives in the Maoist-infested Bolangir district. They were on the lookout for the accused when intelligence inputs alerted SP K Shiva Subramani and ASP Sashi Bhusan Satapathy about the hideout in Sadaipali village and in Kantabanji.
Two special squads raided Sadaipali village on the town’s outskirts and at Uding- Dunguripali village under Belpada police limits and found a huge cache of explosives from the two places Tuesday night.
In the first raid, the police raided the house of Mahaling in Sadaipali village and unearthed a huge cache of explosives stored in his house. It also seized Rs 2.32 lakh from his possession.
The seized explosives includes 106 bundles of safety fuse, 38 sacks of ammonium nitrate, separate 15 kg of ammonium nitrate kept outside, 83 kg of gelatin, 13,527 electrical detonators, 35,770 non-electrical detonators, 15 kg charcoal powder, 15 kg sulphur powder, two mobile phones, a Xerox copy of an explosive license that expired in 2010 from the house of Mahaling.
Mahaling was arrested where he admitted to the crime and named Murari Lal and his son for supplying him with the explosives.
Based on his inputs, a separate team raided the godown of Murari Lal at Uding-Dunguripali village under Belpada police limits and seized an explosive-laden mini truck parked outside.
During verification 27 sacks of electrical detonators were seized from its carriage as police arrested Murari Lal and his son for their involvement. PNN
