Security forces recovered more than $65 lakh cash, along with a large cache of arms, ammunition and explosives, was recovered from Maoist hideouts in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district during anti-Maoist operations carried out over the past two weeks, police said on Wednesday.
The recovery operations were made during extensive search and area control operations launched by teams of District Police, District Reserve Guard (DRG), Special Task Force (STF), CRPF and their commando battalion for Resolute Action Unit in remote and highly sensitive areas of the district.
Bijapur Superintendent of Police Jitendra Kumar Yadav said operations intensified after Chhattisgarh declared itself free of armed Maoist presence on March 31. Since then, security personnel have been conducting massive search operations across Bastar district to trace weapons, explosives and money hidden by the Maoists over the years.
According to the police, security forces, with the help of local villagers and intelligence inputs, found several underground Maoist warehouses in forest areas.
Individuals were arrested during the operations $65.52 lakh in cash from three separate dumps. A total of 32 weapons were also found, including a light machine gun (LMG), four self-loading rifles, one carbine, five .303 rifles, a .315 rifle, seven hand grenade launchers (BGL), four 12 mm rifles, an 8 mm pistol and other firearms.
The recovered ammunition included 33 live rounds of AK-47 rifles, 219 SLR rounds, 181 rounds of .303 rifles, 118 rounds of .315 rifles, and 84 BGL shells. Explosive materials, machine components, tools and other daily use items were also seized during the inspections.
In the latest operation, a total of 461 weapons were found in Bijapur district over the past one and a half years, police said.
Nearly 40 kg of ammonium nitrate recovered from the Maui dump in Kavargutta forests under Pamede district, and another 100 kg of ammonium nitrate and urea recovered from the Indravati National Park area in recent days, were destroyed as per safety protocols, the SP added.
