Published Date:
17-Dec-2010
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They want to know if the explosives were being supplied to Maoists through a chain of such couriers.

The RPF sleuths caught Pannalal Ramteke, 60, from platform No 4 of the station on suspicion while he was about to board a train to Gondia. A search of his person and luggage yielded the cache.
Ramteke told investigators on Sunday that he was just a courier, who got Rs200 for the job.

The material was meant to be picked up from Pachgaon, a mine area on the Nagpur-Umred road about 28km from Nagpur, and handed over to two contractors, whom he identified as Kashiram Bhandarkar and Vijay Naidu, in Amgaon, Gondia.

The explosives that are pilfered from the mine operations were to be used to dig wells, Ramteke told investigators.

Even as a local court remanded Ramteke in police custody till May 11, the GRP dispatched a team to Amgaon, about 200km from Nagpur, late Sunday evening to pick up two contractors after a search for the two on Saturday came a cropper.