Bengal STF recovers huge cache of arms, ammunition from abandoned ECL quarters

Kolkata, Aug 9 (AHN) Following night-long raids and search operations, the Special Task Force (STF) of the West Bengal Police have recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition from Andal near the steel-cum-industrial township of Durgapur in West Burdwan district.

The raids started on Saturday night and continued till early Sunday morning, said officials.

The cache of arms and ammunition was recovered from abandoned quarters of Eastern Coalfield Limited (ECL), a subsidiary of public Sector Coal India Limited.

It is learnt that the night-long raids and search operations were conducted by STF sleuths, taking along with them two coal mafias who were arrested last week from neighbouring Jharkhand.

Last Tuesday, the notorious coal mafia Shamsher Hossain was arrested from Ranchi. There are several charges against him. Last month, another person named Khairul was arrested. It is known that this Khairul is Shamsher's partner in coal smuggling. Both were arrested by the STF.

Sources aware of the development said they were kept in STF custody and an extended interrogation was conducted, following which several important pieces of information were obtained from them.

The STF sleuths conducted marathon search operations at the Andal area with the arrested Shamsher and Khairul on Saturday night. During the operations, the STF sleuths recovered 15 firearms and 56 rounds of live cartridges from one place in the abandoned ECL quarters.

Now, questions are being raised whether, besides coal smuggling, Shamsher and Khairul were also involved in illegal arms trafficking.

Both Shamsher and Khairul were notorious and wanted for a long time for their involvement in illegal coal trade in several places, including in Jharkhand.

“Now, the recovery of the arms and ammunition is hinting towards their parallel involvement in arms trafficking. They will be interrogated again to investigate along these lines,” said the state police officer.

Coal smuggling has been an issue both in West Bengal and Jharkhand for long, with both the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducting parallel raids in the matter. In West Bengal, several important persons in the previous administration led by Mamata Banerjee and some influential Trinamool Congress leaders had been under the scanner of the Central agencies in the matter.