Ranchi Police on Sunday recovered a consignment of 10,000 detonators from a bus coming from Baripada in Odisha supposed to be delivered in Ranchi and arrested three. After getting a tip-off that huge consignments of explosives and drugs are being taken from Odisha, police here launched an extensive vehicle checking drive and recovered two consignments of Grass (5 kg and 16 kg each) from two different buses. “We have received the consignments of 10,000 detonators from Jai Maa Durga bus, six kg of Grass from Dolphin bus and 16 kg of Grass from Nini bus, all coming from Baripada in Odisha,” said Ranchi SSP Prabhat Kumar.
The police have arrested three persons — Rajkumar alias Raju Singh, Ravi Shankar Pandey alias Damru Pandey and Horo Prasad Das who are being interrogated by the police. Following a tip-off, Ravi Shankar Pandey who was allegedly carrying the detonators, five kilogram of Ammonium Nitrate and three bunches of Codex wire along with 1.5 kg of explosives were recovered from the house of the person to whom the consignment was to be delivered. Though the consignment was capable of causing huge damages if put on work, prima facie it appears that the detonators were to be used in the illegal mining done by the consignee, the SSP said.
“The consignee of detonators Sanovar Khan, who could not be found at his home was also arrested earlier in similar case, is still absconding,” said SSP. Khan is likely to provide some more leads during the interrogation, he said. Meanwhile, Kumar has denied political links with the serial murders which took place in Rahe and Angara blocks under Silli Assembly constituency just after the results of Assembly elections were declared in the State. According to the SSP, killings which took place under the backdrop of land dispute were done in connivance of red rebels on contract basis.
“A total of Rs4lakh was to be paid for the murder of five persons while Rs2 lakh has already been paid for the second and third killing of Abhimanyu Mahto and Basudev Mahto in the area,” said SSP. According to the SSP, it was purely a culmination of land dispute between the two sides which was being continued since the year 1989 where the accused persons wanted to acquire of the piece of land illegally. “The three arrested persons — Kesahv Mahto, Chitranjan Mahto and Bhagirath Mahto had links with the Maoists in the past also who wanted to finish the matter once and for all,” the SSP added. A total of four arrests have been made so in this regard, he added.