Secunderabad Cantonment arms heist was an inside job, weapons traced in Hyderabad

Telangana police have cracked the Secunderabad Cantonment arms heist, tracing the stolen weapons to a location in Hyderabad and confirming that the theft was an inside job, officers said. Further details of the probe's findings are awaited.

Twelve weapons — four AK-203 assault rifles, seven pistols and an INSAS rifle — were found stolen from the high-security Secunderabad Cantonment near Hyderabad on the morning of August 31. More than 1,000 rounds of ammunition and a pair of passive night-vision binoculars were also found missing.

A senior Army officer lodged a complaint with the Bollaram police station in the Malkajgiri commissionerate, stating that the theft came to light when the ammunition storage was found open with its locks broken.

The investigation established that the weapons and ammunition were last physically accounted for at 6 pm on August 30, before the closing of the Kote — the Keeper of Technical Equipment — and the Battalion Magazine.

"The Kote is always guarded and the guards maintain that they have not seen a break-in. Also, when we checked the records of the armoury, it was found that these were not maintained," a senior police officer said, adding that weapons in an armoury are supposed to be accounted for every evening.

Senior Army officers and Telangana Police officers questioned a senior officer from one of the units of the 20 Madras Regiment in connection with the heist. The officer was questioned because the armoury's books or registers were allegedly not maintained for months.