90 shell casings stolen in MP

Hoshangabad, MP, July 19 (UNI) Ninety shell casings have been stolen from the Army's Taku Proving Range at Itarsi in this district and the incident served as a reminder of 40 casings of 81 mm anti-tank mortar bombs being offloaded by unidentified persons on January 4, along the Bhopal-Nagpur National Highway 69, while being trucked from an ordnance factory in Muradnagar, Ghaziabad, to a counterpart unit at Chandrapur in Maharashtra.

A complaint was lodged at Kesla Police Station on July 13 by Lieutenant-Colonel K C Kalita and a case registered.

''Investigation is underway and raids were carried out on scrap-dealers' premises in the area,'' said Station House Officer and Assistant Sub-Inspector Tejraj Singh.

The January 4 incident, which occurred near Baretha Ghat about 15 km from Betul district town, was inquired into by the Army.

It was earlier believed that only four casings were missing.

Betul's Superintendent of Police Vijay Suryavanshi had said that prima facie it appeared as if some gang was behind the theft.

The privately-owned lorry was also carrying 18 bales of cotton to be offloaded at Nagpur. The incident took place between 0500 and 0600 hrs when the vehicle slowed down.

In his police complaint, driver Sanjay Yadav said that he became aware of the crime when he halted for a check after crossing the ghat. Four boxes, containing the casings and placed at the truck's rear, were missing.

Soon after receiving information, police formed teams and initiated an investigation.

''The incident is not distressing from the security point of view as the casings were empty,'' the Muradnagar unit's Additional General Manager R K Sharma had told UNI over telephone.

Such thefts were commonplace at Baretha Ghat.

UNI Team-AC 1754