Lucknow, May 29 (IANS) A man has been arrested in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi district on charges of supplying arms and ammunition to Maoists, police said Saturday.
Murlidhar Sharma, a native of Bihar’s Rohtas district, was arrested late Friday from Telibagh area of Varanasi, about 250 km from Lucknow.
‘Around 125 live cartridges of INSAS rifle and a fake arms licence were recovered from Murlidhar,’ Superintendent of Police (City) Vijay Bhushan told reporters.
According to the police, Sharma had close links with Yashodanandan Singh, a retired sub-inspector, who was also caught on charges of smuggling arms and ammunition from government armouries and supplying them to Maoists.
Sharma used to source cartridges for Maoists in Bihar with Singh’s assistance, a police officer said.
In April, the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) had arrested Singh, the alleged kingpin of the scam, two Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers and three policemen for allegedly selling arms and ammunition to Maoists.
