Retired army Nco held for Secunderabad armoury theft, arms recovered

A retired army personnel has been arrested for the sensational theft of arms and ammunition from the Madras Regiment armoury in Secunderabad Cantonment last month, police said on Friday. Upputholla Mallesh, a retired Havaldar (NCO) of the Madras Regiment's 20th Battalion, was arrested by Bollarum police, along with the Hyderabad Task Force and SOT Malkajgiri Commissionerate, in a joint operation.

Director General of Police C.V. Anand announced at a news conference here that the entire cache of arms and ammunition stolen from the Kote & Magazine of 20 Battalion, Madras Regiment has been recovered. The stolen arms and ammunition included four AK-203 assault rifles along with five magazines, an INSAS rifle with three magazines, six 9 mm pistols along with 12 magazines, a civil 6.35-bore pistol along with a magazine, a passive night-vision binocular, 1,156 rounds of ammunition for 9mm pistols, 720 rounds of AK-203 ammunition, 11 ball, 5 tracer, and 20 blank rounds of 5.56 mm INSAS ammunition.

The case created a sensation, as such a huge amount of arms and ammunition had never been lost in the history of the area. A case under sections 331 (4) and 305 of the BNS was registered at Bollarum Police Station. The intention behind the theft preliminarily appears to be disgruntlement over early retirement from service, the DGP said.

Prima facie, Mallesh acted alone, but the investigation was to find out if any other person was involved, he said. DGP Anand also virtually ruled out the accused’s links with arms dealers but said army authorities would conduct further investigation.

Mallesh, 37, committed the theft on the intervening night of August 30 and 31. A resident of Jangamreddipalle of Amrabad of Nagarkurnool district, he joined the army in 2010 and worked for 16 years before retirement from service on June 30 this year, on the grounds of indiscipline and poor health.

The DGP said Telangana Police took this case as a major challenge, and the successful arrest is the direct result of coordinated teamwork of the Malkajgiri Police Zone, the Hyderabad City Police Task Force, and the Telangana State Intelligence Department.

“Prima facie, it appeared to be the work of an insider because others having access to the area were quite remote, and the way it happened, after checking the scene, it showed that there had to be some conspiracy from inside," he said.

The investigating agencies shortlisted persons who had close access to the facility. Primarily, two in-charges of the arms and ammunition were prime suspects, but their initial interrogation and that of their colleagues did not reveal much information.

The investigators shortlisted those who had access to the two arms and ammunition stores. They included 10 from the headquarters corps, six from the ammunition corps, a QRT team of seven members, outsourcing staff like electricians, plumbers and contractors and 34 members who were sent on punishment, those who went on leave and seven members who were pensioned out in the last few months.

They were all put on the suspect and watch list. "Apart from this, the intelligence wing and agencies shortlisted 8.5 lakh mobile numbers which needed to be analysed. As days passed, when thorough interrogation and cross-verification were still not revealing any clue, we started investigations towards the angle of drug mafia and other factors affecting national security,” DGP Anand said.

A lot of technical analysis, mobile forensics, CCTV analysis, fingerprints, and tracking calls were all used to shortlist suspects, and finally investigators came down to two people who had been pensioned out recently. One of them was Mallesh, who was staying with his family at Balajinagar in Secunderabad Cantonment.

His movements since August 27 and on the day of the offence were suspicious and not matching with what was he saying, police chief said. According to the DGP, he was brought to Nagarkurnool Police Station on September 7, but he did not reveal his movements.

When he did not come for questioning when summoned, the suspicion got strengthened