BHOPAL, Aug. 14: The case of 61 truck-loads of explosives that went missing after the stock had been lifted from Dholpur in Rajasthan has acquired a serious dimension from the security point of view as the Sagar district police in Madhya Pradesh have found four empty trucks involved in transporting the explosives abandoned in Rajgarh district near the state capital.
According to sources, the Union home ministry has taken serious note of the missing explosives and asked the state government to submit a report.
The state home minister, Mr Umashankar Gupta, said that the main accused in this case belongs to Rajasthan. He also said that the license used by him had been issued to a Sagar-based company. The license had expired in the month of March this year, he added.
The IG (Sagar range), Mr Anvesh Mangalam, said on Saturday that four of the twenty-two trucks used for transporting the explosives from Dholpur have been found abandoned in Rajgarh district. The search is on for the drivers.
Police teams have also been sent to Rajasthan to collect information about the main accused and the network of those who were getting explosives supplied through him.
He said that the explosives were lifted from Rajasthan Chemicals and Explosives at Dholpur on the basis of a license issued in the name of a company located at Sagar.
Under the Explosive Substances Act, the seller and the buyer are both supposed to inform the district police and collector whenever there is any sale/purchase of explosives.
After it was noticed that a large volume of explosives had reached Sagar, the police launched a preliminary investigation and it was found that Ganesh Explosive, in whose name the license had been obtained, had not lifted the stock in question and the explosives had not reached Sagar.
After this a case was registered in July by the Sagar district police.