Arms could have been for Maoists

The five tonnes of explosives seized from a truck on the Jharkhand-Chhattisgarh border on Monday is suspected to have been headed for delivery to CPIMaoist cadres in Dantewara to forment violence during the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Sources said the truck was moving with a permit showing it was carrying sacks of rice from MS Agrawal Traders in Bihars Muzaffarpur. When the police began to search the truck at the Lodam check post in Chhattisgarhs Jashpur district,close to Jharkhands Gumla district,the driver and the khalasi escaped.

The haul included 17,750 cartridges of 12 bore,1,550 catridges of .9 mm,20 sacks of ammonium nitrate,270 plastic containers,four sacks of aluminium powder,two packs of urea,five packs of hand gloves,two containers carrying a liquid and 164 sacks of chemicals. We are inquiring into how the truck crossed the Jharkhand border, said Gumla Dy SP Madhu Sudan.