More than a month after they began probing the case of missing explosives,the Madhya Pradesh Police have finally got the list of 22 lorries used in transportation. Armed with the details,they seized four of these lorries from Rajgarh town,the district where main accused Jaikishan Aswani has a facility to store explosives. Aswani had indented the explosives from Rajasthan Explosives and Chemicals Company (RECL) in the name of Ganesh Explosives,a company he did not own and whose licence had already expired. The four empty lorries were lying abandoned for more than a month but the police seized them late on Friday only after confirming that they were registered to carry the explosives. The lorries are actually specialised containers,modified according to the guidelines for transporting explosives IG (Sagar Range) Anvesh Mangalam told The Sunday Express that as much as 370 tonne of explosives were purchased in the name of Ganesh Explosives,located a few kilometres from Sagar town,in 61 consignments but never reached the destination. Rajgarh SP Asha Mathur said Aswani is a resident of Bhilwara in Rajasthan but owned a facility in Rajgarh. She said more details about Aswani were being collected. The police have made no arrests so far but have kept Devendra Singh Thakur,the owner of Ganesh Explosives,under watch. It was Thakur who had first alleged that even though the licence of Ganesh Explosives had expired Aswani was purchasing explosives in its name. The police suspect Thakur and Aswani worked in partnership for some time before things went wrong between them. He identifies himself as a victim not an accused, Mangalam said of Thakur. The police believe Aswani with his Rajasthan-based relative Shivcharan Chheda diverted the explosives headed for Sagar to people into illegal mining. The police are not ruling out the possibility that the explosives could have even fallen into the hands of anti-national elements. However,its surprising that the police have not made much headway in the case though they claim to have got support from the Rajasthan Police. Not even one driver or cleaner of these lorries has been taken into custody,leave aside the main accused or his accomplices.
