Was arms haul faked during Sonia visit?

A CRPF team, which claimed to have seized RDX and ammunition ahead of Sonia Gandhi's visit to J&K is under police scanner.

A CRPF team, which claimed to have uncovered a Lashkar-e-Toiba hideout and seized RDX and ammunition ahead of the visit of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil to Bhaderwah last Friday, is under the J&K police scanner on suspicion that the seizure was stagemanaged.

Highly placed sources told The Indian Express that J&K DGP Kuldeep Khuda has ordered an inquiry which is being conducted by SSP Doda, Manohar Singh. He has been told to submit his report at the earliest.

The CRPF has also been asked to hold a parallel inquiry. Sources said that the DGP called the IG CRPF to his office yesterday and asked him to look into the matter at his end as well. The CRPF was unavailable for comment today.

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Sources said that the CRPF team, which claimed to have made the seizure, was led by their Commanding Officer. The police claim the team “stagemanaged” the seizure to win accolades for “foiling” militant plans to target VVIPs.

The CRPF personnel, led by their CO, had descended on a locked house at Teligarh on the outskirts of Bhaderwah town and claimed to have recovered three kilograms of RDX, two Chinese grenades along with a grenade launcher, two detonators, seven AK-47 rounds and three Pika rounds, besides one wireless set and a mobile phone charger in the early hours of Friday.

The CRPF team claimed that Lashkar militants, who had been hiding in the house, fled before they got there. The house belongs to a shopkeeper Jameel Ahmed who at that time was at his second home in Bhaderwah town.

Despite the seizure, Sonia Gandhi, Shivraj Patil, Saifuddin Soz and Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad visited Bhaderwah town and addressed people at the Government Higher Secondary School there.

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The role of the CRPF team came under scrutiny after local police officers questioned their own policemen who had accompanied the CRPF the previous night.

Once the policemen denied that any seizure had taken place before them, the police questioned local residents who were reportedly accompanying the CRPF team. The police claimed the civilians said the seizures were stage-managed.

Police sources said that residents told them that a CRPF team from the 113 Bn had been visiting Teligarh and other surrounding areas to “select a place for the seizure” for the last three-four days. Finally, a day before the scheduled visit of Sonia Gandhi, they “selected” an abandoned house on the outskirts of Bhaderwah town.

As the CRPF needed local police to accompany them for effecting a seizure, the CO called the local police station on Thursday evening and sought policemen for routine patrolling. Three policemen, who reported at the CO’s office, were made to sit there without any work for nearly three hours before they were told to accompany a CRPF team to Teligarh, police sources said.