After controversial fake encounters, some Army officials of Northern and Western Commands are embroiled in a controversy where a “source” and an ex-Army personnel allegedly in conspiracy with the Military Intelligence officials planted sand and passed it off as deadly RDX explosives to earn cash rewards. The nefarious nexus emerged when the police recovered a consignment of apple boxes near MLA’s hostel in Jammu in which a cavity had been created to store a black material which was being passed off as explosives. The boxes had detonators attached to it, triggering panic on October 8.
However, after a detailed forensic analysis, the supposed-to-be explosive material turned out to be sand which was attached to wires and detonators that were brought from stone quarries to give a realistic look of an improvised explosive devi-ce, sources in the home ministry said quoting interrogation of three of the accused arrested by the police.
The accused — Mehboob Dar, an ex-serviceman Ram Krishen and Mohammed Rafi — were picked up after a stone quarry dealer cracked during questioning and told the police that he had been supplying detonators to Dar earlier also, the sources said. Dar’s arrest showed that sand was planted in connivance with some Army officials for monetary consideration and also claimed that the rate for planting of fake explosives at Jammu was fixed at `60,000. Northern Command spokesperson J.S. Brar said, “It is requested that Western Command be approached for the same, as it does not pertains to our area.” Efforts to seek a response from the Western Command did not fructify as there was no reply to an SMS sent to the brigadier general staff of the command. The incident comes four months after three youth were gunned down allegedly in cold blood by some Army officials in Machil sector of North Kashmir. The state police has filed a chargesheet against an Army colonel, two majors and six soldiers. —PTI