Army guards at Secunderabad’s Bollarum armoury failed to notice a major arms theft.(Representative image)
Though the Army’s complaint stated that the weapons and ammunition were physically accounted for at 6 pm on Aug 30 prior to the armoury being closed, police officers are not ruling out the possibility of the crime being committed in instalments over a period of time. “The stolen arms and ammunition weigh about 40 kg. HYDERABAD: Army guards deployed at Madras Regiment’s armoury in Secunderabad Cantonment’s Bollarum have claimed during police interrogation that they failed to notice burglars breaking open the locks and escaping with high-end arms and ammunition, weighing nearly 40 kilos, due to heavy rain that night. Because the armoury door was not in their line of sight, “The guards claimed that besides the rain, they did not notice the crime in progress.
It is unlikely that guards would not notice such a time-consuming burglary which requires more than one person’s involvement and a four-wheeler to transport the weapons,” said a senior police officer. Interrogation has not yielded any positive results and the stolen arms are yet to be located,” a Malkajgiri police officer said. We are questioning the guards and their supervisors one by one,” a police officer said.
“We also found that CCTV cameras at the armoury were switched off every night for the past few months to prevent fire mishaps. There is no no anti-burglary alarm either,” he added Police investigators are verifying the possibility of the accused dropping the weapons over the compound wall for an associate waiting outside to pick them up. Special teams are checking CCTV camera feeds within the military area, especially at entry points and also in the surrounding roads. Malkajgiri police, along with state and central intelligence sleuths and military intelligence officials, have been questioning Army personnel, including Agniveers, non-commissioned officers, sepoys on guard duty and those been deployed in the regiment for a long time. Their questioning is taking place both inside the military zone and also at an undisclosed location outside. During questioning, police found out that guards were present at the armoury at the time of the theft.