Greyhounds' stolen AK-47 rifle was reported as a 'missing case'
Investigation Officer had not made any breakthrough in the case in nine months
Hyderabad: Officials of Greyhounds, the anti-Naxal commando force, seemed to have downplayed the theft case of the AK-47 rifle despite chances of miscreants laying their hands on the weapon.
After filing the case, the officials did not allow Cyberabad police to interrogate any commandos stating that ‘the men will be demoralised’, top sources from Cyberabad police said. The probe then hit a dead end within days after the case was registered.
Greyhounds officials took more than 45 days to approach the police after the weapon was stolen. They said it was an ‘internal inquiry’.
“We have not got any inquiry report from Greyhounds to access at least initial clues, despite conducting two months of internal inquiry,” said a senior police official from Shamshabad.
It has now come to light that the local police and Greyhounds officials did not collaborate in the case.
Greyhounds officials say that the police was supposed to investigate the case. The case was registered under IPC Sections 408 (criminal breach of trust) and 380 (theft in a dwelling house). Cyberabad police considered it as a ‘missing case’.
A senior official said that the intention of Greyhounds officials was just to ‘notify’ the incident, and searching and finding the weapon was not a possible task. “It’s like a missing man case. If anybody finds the weapon they can inform the police and hand it over to us,” said the official.
However, the irony is that the theft of high end weapon from one of the most elitist force in the country also remained undisclosed till the shooting took place. Thus the police case also did not serve the purpose of ‘notification’ on the stolen weapon.
A few days after the FIR was registered, the investigation officer Mr R. Sanjay Kumar, who was the then Station House Officer of Narsingi police was transferred to another police station. The new Investigation Officer had not made any breakthrough in the case in nine months, sources said.
The case status remained on paper as ‘Under Investigation’ and the reason was stated as unavailability of clues.