Retd havildar held for theft of assault rifles, pistols from T’gana armoury

Telangana police arrested a retired army havildar for allegedly in connection with the theft of a large cache of firearms and ammunition from the Bell of Arms at the 20 battalion Madras Regiment’s headquarters at Secunderabad cantonment on the intervening night of August 30 and 31, police said on Friday.

The police also recovered all the stolen weapons and ammunition from the accused, identified as Upputholla Mallesh (37), at his residence at Kowkoor village in Rangareddy district and also his native village Jangam Reddy Pally in Nagarkurnool disctrict.

“Mallesh was booked under Sections 331 (4) (house breaking in the night for theft) and 305 (aggravated forms of theft of public property) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). He was produced in the local court and remanded to judicial custody,” director general of police C V Anand said at a press conference.

The DGP said Mallesh had served in the army as a havildar in 20 Battalion of Madras Regiment at Bolarum for 16 years. He joined the Indian Army in 2010 and had to undergo compulsory retirement from service on June 30 this year on health grounds and also on charges of indiscipline.

“Prima facie, we have not found any strong motive behind the theft of arms and apparently, he has developed grouse against the authorities for forcing him to face early retirement from service. However, we are not ruling out the possibility of Mallesh having links with any anti-national or anti-social outfits and we shall continue to probe in that angle. The military intelligence will also conduct a simultaneous probe,” the DGP said.

Explaining the modus operandi of the arms theft, police said Mallesh came to the Kote and Battalion Magazine (arms and ammunition storage) of Madras Regiment on his two-wheeler around 11 pm on August 30. Since he was a familiar face, the guard at the gate did not suspect him when he was entering the area, they added.

“He first entered the arms unit and stole the weapons along with ammunition used in those weapons, besides a passive night-vision binocular. He kept them on his vehicle and went out to a nearby temple, where he unloaded them. He returned to the armoury again and entered another wing of the Bell of Arms and stole the magazines,” Anand said.

The stolen arms included four AK-203 rifles, one 5.56 mm INSAS rifle, six 9 mm pistols and a civilian 6.35-bore pistol. Police also recovered 1,156 rounds of 9 mm ammunition, 720 rounds of AK-203 ammunition and INSAS ammunition, besides magazines and other equipment.

“Subsequently, he travelled for a couple of kilometres on his bike and later transferred them into his Maruti Brezza car which he was driving to carry passengers to eke out his livelihood. He travelled towards Srisailam Road and carried passengers midway to avoid being suspected. After dropping the passengers en route, he reached his native village in Amrabad,” the DGP said.

The theft came to light on August 31 morning, when Vinod Kumar Naik, the officer in charge of the arms facility, noticed the missing weapons and lodged a complaint.