The police in Rajasthan’s Nagaur district on Sunday seized a large cache of explosive material, suspected to be meant for legal and illegal mining, from a farm ahead of Republic Day, PTI reported.
The authorities acted on a tip-off and carried out a raid late on Saturday in Harsaur village, where they recovered 9,550 kg of ammonium nitrate packed in 187 sacks, the news agency quoted Nagaur Superintendent of Police Mridul Kachhawa as saying.
The superintendent of police was quoted as saying by The Indian Express that this was “perhaps the biggest such seizure of its kind in Rajasthan”.
A man named Suleman Khan was arrested in connection with the haul. He has three previous criminal cases against him, out of which he has been acquitted in one, the police said.
Apart from ammonium nitrate, the police also seized detonators, detonating wires and other material that is “normally used in mining-related blasting”, The Indian Express quoted the police as saying.
The police filed a case under the Explosive Substances Act and under provisions pertaining to organised crime.
“We will establish the forward and backward linkages of the explosives,” the newspaper quoted Kachhawa as saying. “In the preliminary questioning, the facts which have come to light are that he supplied the explosives for legal and illegal mining.”
Central agencies have been notified about the seizure, and are likely to question Khan as part of a wider investigation, PTI quoted the police as saying.
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