Firearms, ammunitions found missing from Siwan police lines armoury

PATNA: A .303 rifle, two 9mm standard issue pistols and at least 150 rounds of different bores, were found missing from armoury of police lines at Siwan.
Siwan SP Naveen Chandra Jha, while talking to TOI over phone on Sunday, said the matter surfaced after a physical verifications of all firearms were conducted at the police lines which took at least a month.
"The orders to initiate physical verification were given in the month of April as it’s a mandatory process which should be conducted every year," Jha said adding that he had received the report of the verification three days back.
Jha, quoting the report, said a .303 rifle and two 9mm pistols were found missing from armoury.
"The missing ammunitions were of .303, 9mm and 7.62mm bore," he said adding process of physical verification would be initiated again.
The SP said the missing firearms was a serious issue and an FIR was lodged against unknown persons with Mufassil police station three days back.
"There are thousands of cartridges in armoury. Benefit of doubt in counting mistake could be given at initial stage. Due to it, re-verification orders were issued," the SP said.
"On Sunday I went through records from which it surfaced that no physical verification of firearms and ammunitions was conducted in the district in last ten years. Due to this, it can’t be said that during tenure of which SP, the firearms went missing," he said.
Jha said that the state police headquarters was informed about the missing firearms and ammunitions and a court of inquiry has been initiated.
"I would be heading the inquiry along with ASP Kantesh Mishra, DSPs Kalpnath Singh and Naveen Mishra as members," he added.