Three serving soldiers among seven more arrested over theft of AK-203 rifles from a Secunderabad Army armoury
Police say a retired havildar planned to rob banks and jewellers with the weapons, then tried to sell them in West Bengal for up to ₹5 lakh each.
Malkajgiri Police in Telangana have arrested seven more people, including three serving Army personnel, in the case of weapons stolen from the armoury of the Army’s 20 Madras Regiment in Secunderabad. The arrests were announced this weekend.
What was taken
- 4 AK-203 assault rifles
- 6 nine-millimetre pistols
- 1 INSAS rifle
- A quantity of ammunition
The weapons were recovered after the arrest last month of the alleged prime accused, Upputholla Mallesh, a former Army havildar who retired after 16 years of service.
Who has been arrested
The three serving soldiers posted at Secunderabad Cantonment are Vinod Kumar, Konduri Sheshulu and Kucharakanti Praveen. The others are Mallesh’s cousin Upputholla Mallikarjun, his friend Nirajan, and two men from West Bengal, Avi Dey alias Obi and Birbal Shaw.
The alleged plan
According to police, the group first planned to use the weapons to rob banks, jewellery shops and wealthy households. They later tried to sell them to buyers in West Bengal, at ₹3 lakh for each pistol and ₹5 lakh for each rifle.
Malkajgiri Police Commissioner Badugula Sumathi ruled out any link to terrorist or extremist groups. The case is likely to raise questions about how weapons stored in a military armoury could be removed without being noticed.
Sources: ThePrint.
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