Surat: Police here have arrested a policeman serving in Nagpur, for allegedly planting two live 7.62mm cartridges in the storage compartment of a scooter belonging to a man working at the Ghoddod Road branch of a nationalized bank.
The accused was ostensibly angry with the 36-year-old regional bank officer as he was allegedly having an affair with the policeman’s wife, who is also a bank officer.
After trying several times to persuade the bank officer to end the affair with his wife, the policeman gave two live cartridges for an SLR (self-loading rifle) to a man who planted them in the scooter’s storage compartment. Umra police in Surat cracked the case and arrested the policeman, booking him under the Arms Act.
The 36-year-old complainant is the regional manager of a nationalized bank, working at the branch on Ghoddod Road in Surat. On Monday afternoon, he parked his scooter in the basement of the building where his bank is situated. The Surat police control room received a call reporting suspicious items in a scooter at a certain complex. The caller also provided the scooter’s number. Umra police rushed to the spot and checked the scooter in the presence of the banker.
Police found a black pouch containing two live cartridges. Investigators summoned the armourer from police headquarters, who confirmed them to be live SLR cartridges bearing 7.62 M80 07 OFV numbers. Police asked the banker for his firearms licence but he couldn’t produce one.
After the banker pleaded that someone must have planted the cartridges to harass him, police asked him if he suspected anyone.
The banker told police that he had an affair with a woman colleague, whose husband works with Nagpur police. Based on this, police located the accused Nagpur policeman at Surat railway station and apprehended him.
“After apprehending the cop, we also called his wife, who is posted in the Piplod branch of the bank. We spoke to both separately, during which the policeman confessed to having the cartridges planted by another accused. He said as the banker was unwilling to end the affair with his wife, he planted the cartridges to teach him a lesson,” said police.
The accused is a naik police constable with Nagpur police.
Deputy commissioner of police (Zone 4) Vijay Singh Gurjar said: “The accused policeman’s wife and the bank regional officer had an affair and wanted to marry. As the couple have two children, the woman decided to break off the affair and decided to stay with the accused policeman. As the policeman was disturbed by the developments, he decided to teach the banker a lesson. He also thought the banker was not allowing his wife to transfer to his home state.”
Umra police have deployed a team to apprehend the accused who allegedly planted the cartridges.
**BOX:
Got cartridges from Gadchiroli
The investigation focused on how the accused got the live cartridges. “Ten years ago, when he was receiving police training in Gadchiroli, the trainees would shoot their weapons many times a day. During this training, there was no accounting for bullets fired. One policeman gave the accused two cartridges, which he kept with him and planted in the scooter. This is his claim,” Gurjar said.
Cops had attempted suicide
When Surat police contacted Nagpur police to confirm the what the accused had said, they learned that he was so disturbed over the matter that he had tried to commit suicide once. Even after reaching a compromise with his wife, he wanted to get revenge on the bank officer.
