The Ibrahimpatnam police on Tuesday seized a huge quantity of explosive material stored illegally. They took six persons into custody and seized a lorry used for transporting the material.
According to Ibrahimpatnam Circle Inspector D. Chavan, the accused Cherukuri Ramakrishna possessed a licence to maintain an explosive magazine titled, Eshwar Enterprises, at G. Kondur in Krishna district. He supplied the material to the neighbouring quarry and stone crushing units.
However, the accused stored the mixture of ammonium nitrate, used for blasting quarries, in a shed owned by Modern Crushers, located at Paritala village in Kanchikacherla mandal violating the licence rules.
The police team led by SIs Yuva Kumar and Srinivas raided the illegal warehouse and seized 10 tonnes of explosive material packed in 400 boxes.
They arrested licence holder Ramakrishna, Modern Crushers owner, Thotakura Purnachander Rao, supervisors of both the units Kanneganti Srinivas and Morakonda Venkata Prasad, shot firer Elaka Pichireddy and lorry driver Boina Pochaiah.
A case has been registered against the accused under Section 9 (b) of Explosives Act 1884. “The explosive material was procured from Raja Sri Enterprises located at Murtyreddy Gudem village, Bhongir mandal in Nalgonda district. We are verifying the records. A team would be sent to Telangana State and the investigation has been handed over to the Explosives Department,” Mr. Chavan told The Hindu .