Secunderabad military arms theft: Prime suspect ex-army personnel held, stolen weapons recovered

Addressing a press conference Friday, Telangana Director General of Police C.V. Anand identified the main suspect as Upputholla Mallesh, who allegedly held a grudge against his superiors for “forcing” him into early retirement on 30 June this year. A resident of Mahboob Nagar, Mallesh had joined the Army in 2010 and worked for 16 years before he was compulsorily retired due to discipline and health issues, he said.

With the identification of the main suspect, who recently retired from service and was aware of the military camp’s layout, the police also recovered the missing weapons: four AK-203 assault rifles, six 9 mm pistols and an INSAS rifle along with missing ammunition, sources further said.

New Delhi: The Telangana Police has arrested a former Army Havildar on grounds of theft of sophisticated weapons from the armoury of the Indian Army’s Madras Regiment in Secunderabad last month.

“The intention behind the theft preliminarily appears to be disgruntlement out of early retirement from service,” the DGP added.

He also explained the chain of events, saying that Mallesh allegedly came around 11 pm on the night of 30 August, and stole arms and ammunition from the Kote room and magazine room of the 20th Battalion Madras Regiment in the Bollarum area of Secunderabad.

ThePrint had earlier reported that the Malkajgiri Police Commissionerate had registered a First Information Report based on a complaint from the Indian Army under sections 331(4) (lurking house-trespass or house-breaking) and 305 (theft in special protected places) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

Apart from the arms, the Army had informed the police that around 1,800 rounds of ammunition and 21 magazines were missing from the armoury, putting the entire Bolarum cantonment region in Secunderabad on high alert. Nearly 700 of those missing rounds were of AK-203 rifles.

In his complaint to the local police, a lieutenant colonel-ranked officer posted with the Madras Regiment informed local authorities that after the missing weapons and ammunition came to light, several steps were carried out, such as thorough verification of the complete weapon and ammunition holdings and accounting documents.

Additionally, the Army had also carried out identification and questioning of personnel with access to the storage area. The facts about missing weapons and ammunition were also reported to the chain of command, the officer said in his complaint, adding that a detailed internal inquiry was initiated to determine the circumstances that led to their loss.

However, he had urged the police to register a criminal case as well, considering the possibility of “unauthorised possession, misuse or movement” of those missing service weapons and ammunition.

“In view of the nature of the missing articles, particularly the service weapons and ammunition, there is a possibility of their unauthorised possession, misuse or movement. As such, they requested that the matter may kindly be investigated by the Police and an FIR be registered under the applicable provisions relating to theft/misappropriation, unauthorised possession of arms/ammunition and other offences as may be established during investigation,” the Army officer had said in his police complaint.

This is an updated version of the report.

(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)

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