Bodyguards could not guard their weapons! In an interesting incident, official security guards of a Jharkhand Cabinet Minister found their two AK-47 rifles, one pistol and about 185 rounds of cartridge missing when they woke up in morning after a sound sleep. The weapons belonged to the bodyguards of Minister Jaiprakash Bhai Patel. Though Hazaribagh police are neither confirming nor denying the incident, police sources said that senior officials are looking into this matter seriously.
As per police sources last night, after escorting Minister Jaiprakash Bhai Patel at his residence, the bodyguards went to their official rest house which is near a lake. Two drivers namely Bhuwaneshwar Mahto and Anil Mahto were with them. Though the drivers do not belong to police department, they too stayed at the rest house last night.
In the morning, bodyguard Indra Kumar Chetri, Kisan Rai and Navneet Kumar Tiwari found their weapons missing. Soon the news spread like jungle fire in the town and people started gathering near the police rest house. Navneet Kumar Tiwari, a hawaldar of special branch, has lost his pistol and the AK-47 of the rest two jawans are missing.
On Saturday night, there were 11 people who had stayed in the rest house. Nine of them were of police department, while two were the drivers of Minister JP Bhai Patel. As the news spread, the police officials first sent them away from the reach of local correspondents and general people. Sources said that DIG, SP and other officials are interrogating all the 11 people who were in the rest house last night.
Meanwhile, some officials have made several visits of the rest house in search of any clue. The police officials were seen deeply searching for clues in the premises of the rest house. The DIG of Special Branch Dadan Ji Sharma has also arrived Hazaribagh. This is the first incident of its kind when a personnel of Special Branch has lost his weapon. The DIG will also inquire that why his jawan stayed with other police jawans which is not permissible.
In last three months, two unsuccessful attempts to loot police weapons have been reported in the police diaries of Ranchi and Ramgarh districts. It indicates that some group was interested in the weapons of bodyguards of Minister JP Bhai Patel. Here it is noteworthy that the weapons of bodyguards of late Teklal Mahto, father of JP Bhai Patel, were also looted atleast twice in the past.