By IANS
Patna : The Bihar Police Thursday announced the reopening of an investigation into the theft of five self-loading rifles (SLRs) and a Insas rifle from the armoury of the 6th battalion of the Bihar Military Police (BMP) in Muzaffarpur district last year.
Deputy Inspector General (Tirhut range) Arvind Pandey said he has ordered the re-opening of the case and announced a reward of Rs.100,000 for anyone providing information about arms stolen from the BMP armoury at Muzaffarpur, about 70 km from here.
“It is a serious issue. The police has to solve the case,” Pandey said.
He questioned the failure of a previous police probe into the case. Last year, after the arms theft was detected on Aug 27, the state government had ordered a high level probe by the police.
Gupteshwar Pandey, the then deputy inspector general of Tirhut range who was transferred last month, headed the investigation.
Police sources told IANS no lie-detector test of 20 sentries at the BMP armoury has been conducted till date.
A few constables and an outsider, Sah Alam alias Shabbu, who used to visit the BMP campus frequently, are under suspicion and would be questioned soon, sources said.
In August 2006, an AK-47 assault rifle and 60 bullets had also gone missing from a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp in Muzaffarpur.