The pistol of Special Branch constable Navneet Tiwary which dramatically went missing along with the two AK-47 rifles, magazines and bullets since November 23 from PHED guest house in Hazaribagh, was finally recovered on Thursday late night from Jheel area under Sadar police station.
Two AK-47 rifles and five loaded magazines had been recovered earlier from the backyard of the same guest house on November 30.
According to the police, Navneet, who had been deployed in the security of Excise Minister Jai Prakash Bhai Patel, during interrogation admitted that he being in a habit of gambling had ‘mortgaged’ his pistol to one of his friends to clear his debts, which was imposed on him during Dipawali. “He had lost around Rs 1 lakh while gambling at the time of Dipawali. Besides, he had also taken loans from different private parties,” said Hazaribagh SP Manoj Kaushik.
“To give an impression of real theft of arms, Navneet hatched a conspiracy alongwith his friend to steal the weapons of other security guards of the minister so that he could get away easily with the theft,” he said.
“He went on an undeclared holiday of around 10 days to his native place Betiah during Chhath Puja and gave his pistol to one of his friends and came back to Hazaribagh,” added Kaushik.
“Since he did not require wearing police uniforms Navneet carried the holster without having a gun in it for three days,” he said.
On November 23, he himself stole the two rifles along with the magazines and put it in the backyard of the guest house to give an impression that all of their arms have been stolen.
After repeated interrogation, Navneet divulged few details which were contradictory to each other. On the basis of suspicion, pressure was
created on him finally recovering the pistol near the cafeteria at Jheel area.
Police, however, are not convinced with the assertion as he has changed his statements several times since the day he was detained by the police after the arms were stolen.
“Navneet is likely to be sent to Ahmedabad in Gujarat on December 16 to undergo a Narco, lie-detection and brain mapping tests so that the truth may come out to in the open,” said the SP.
Navneet, hailing from West Champaran district of Bihar, has regularly been deployed in VIP security since his posting in Chaibasa police. According to police sources, he has served at several important locations like Chief Minister’s house in Ranchi and had also been a part of security of former Chief Minister Arjun Munda and former Deputy Chief Minister Sudesh Mahto before being deployed in the security of the Excise Minister.
Three weapons, including two AK-47s and a 9-mm pistol, went missing on November 23 from Amrit Nagar in Hazaribagh. The two AK-47s were later recovered from Hazaribagh on November 30.
While all three of the Minister’s bodyguards were initially suspended and arrested, two were released three days later.