NIA likely to probe American rifle recovery case

The National Investigation Agency is all set to take over the probe into the recovery of an American Colt and Hart M-16 rifle from an alleged arms supplier and a Maoist zonal commander in Jharkhand.

Official sources said a team of NIA has already visited Silodar forest from where the American gun, an Italian pistol and UK manufactured bulletproof jacket were recovered from alleged arms supplier Prafulla Malakar and Maoist zonal commander Anil Yadav four days ago.

Considering the significance involved in the recovery of the automatic weapons from a remote location in Jharkhand, the case will soon be handed over to NIA for probe, they said.

The investigators will try to find out the link of the suppliers, the possible route of the arms smuggling and whether any official agency of neighbouring country was involved in the racket, sources said.

A formal notification handing over the case to NIA will soon be announced, they said.