New Delhi/Jammu October 18:
Barely four months after an Army colonel and six others were chargesheeted for carrying out fake encounters in Jammu and Kashmir, Military Intelligence officials are now accused of playing along with an ex-Army personnel in planting sand and passing it off as RDX explosives to earn cash rewards.
The alleged involvement of Army officials from the Northern and Western Commands emerged when police recovered a consignment of apple boxes near the MLAs' hostel in Jammu on October 8. A cavity had been created to store some black material which was being passed off as explosives. The boxes had detonators attached, further triggering panic.
After detailed forensic analysis, however, the "explosive material" turned out to be sand which was attached to wires and detonators brought from stone quarries -- ending in what closely resembled an improvised explosive device (IED), sources in the Union home ministry said, quoting interrogation of three of the accused arrested by the police.
The accused -- ex-serviceman Ram Krishen and special police officers Mehboob Dar and Mohammed Rafi -- were picked up after a stone quarry dealer cracked during questioning and told police that he had supplied detonators to Dar on earlier occasions too, the sources said. Dar's arrest revealed that the sand "cache" was planted in connivance with some Army officials in return for money; he also claimed that the "rate" for planting fake explosives in Jammu was Rs 60,000. Dar and Rafi have been suspended since.
Northern Command spokesperson J S Brar refused comment, merely stating that the area was under Western Command. The Brigadier General Staff of Western Command did not respond to text messages. The fresh controversy comes four months after three youths were gunned down allegedly in cold blood by some Army officers in Machil sector of north Kashmir. The state police had filed a chargesheet against an army colonel, two majors and six soldiers in that incident.
The arrest of former Armyman Ram Krishen has raised eyebrows among central security agencies as he has been instrumental in recovery of explosives for the Northern Command in the past too. During the probe carried out discreetly, it was found that all such explosives were shown as "destroyed insitu" (on spot).
