Retd army officer, 2 others detained in Secunderabad cantonment arms theft case

The Telangana Police have detained a retired army officer and two accomplices in connection with the August 30 theft of firearms from a Madras Regiment armoury at Bolarum in the Secunderabad cantonment area, officials said on Friday.

The breakthrough follows a multi-agency probe involving the Bolarum and Malkajgiri police, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), and military intelligence.

According to a senior Malkajgiri police official, a joint team searched the retired officer’s residence in Mahabubnagar late Thursday night. Stolen weapons and ammunition were subsequently recovered from a location in Hyderabad.

The officer is learnt to have previously served with the Madras Regiment and retired only a couple of months ago.

An official said investigators were trying to establish whether the retired officer was helped by an insider to steal the weapons and ammunition from the secured armoury.

The incident that came to light on August 31 morning involved the theft of 12 rifles, 21 magazines, a night-vision binoculars and 1,912 rounds of ammunition. The miscreants broke open the locks and boxes containing weapons and ammunition at “Kote and Battalion Magazine” (ammunition storage) at Bolarum.

After initial internal inquiry, the authorities lodged a complaint with the Bolarum police.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the miscreants might have thrown the stolen weapons over the rear boundary wall of the building, which were picked up by others waiting on the other side of the wall.

“The armoury area has separate personnel responsible for the storage and issue of weapons and ammunition. So, the investigating authorities examined the possible role of the officials in charge of the Bell of Arms and the ammunition section, and whether their alleged cooperation enabled the retired officer to gain access to the weapons,” the official quoted above said.

Police teams are now verifying the recovered hardware to ensure all missing items are accounted for. Multi-agency investigators are also probing the ultimate motive behind the theft, including the planned destination of the stolen weapons.