Telangana Police are investigating the theft of sophisticated weapons and ammunition from the highly secured armoury of the Madras Regiment in the Secunderabad Cantonment area, suspecting the involvement of personnel from within the premises, police said on Tuesday.
The missing weapons include four AK-203 assault rifles, a 5.56mm INSAS rifle, six 9mm auto pistols and a 6.35-bore civilian pistol, besides 21 magazines and a passive night vision binocular. The stolen items are worth around ₹ 15 lakh.
Police are probing how the thieves managed to break open the locks of a room containing weapons in an area protected by stringent military security, she said. Accessed by HT, the stolen weapons and other articles were missing from the recorded holdings of the weaponry unit, according to the FIR. Malkajgiri commissioner of police B Sumathi, who inspected the weapons room where the theft took place, told reporters on Tuesday that special teams had been formed to investigate the case.
Army authorities, after conducting an initial internal investigation, lodged a formal complaint at Bollarum police station around 3 pm on Monday. Police registered a case under Sections 331(4) (housebreaking by night) and 305 (aggravated theft in a public property) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
