New Delhi, June 2 :The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday filed a supplementary charge sheet against arms trafficker Rajiv Kumar in the Bihar arms recovery case.
An NIA spokesperson said that the agency has named Kumar, a resident of Bihar's Gaya district, under several sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Arms Act, and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
The case relates to recovery of three AK-47 rifles on the disclosure of charge-sheeted accused Shamsher Alam from the premises of Rizwana Begum.
A case was registered at Muffasil police station in Bihar's Munger district, and the NIA took over the probe on October 5, 2018. Till date, the NIA has named 14 persons in the charge sheet.
The official said that investigation has revealed that certain employees and ex-employees of Central Ordinance Depot (COD), Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh) had conspired with a group of arms smugglers and had stolen a large number of AK series rifles, their parts and SLRs from the sheds of COD, Jabalpur.
"The king-pin of the racket, Purshottam Lal Rajak, an ex-armourer of the COD, had cannibalised serviceable parts from out of commission weapons and had manufactured functioning prohibited weapons such as AK-47s," the official said, adding 22 such AK-47 have been recovered so far.
"These weapons stolen out of COD Jabalpur were then supplied to arms smugglers from Munger which were then further supplied to Maoists and criminals."
The official said that Kumar is a close associate of chargesheeted accused Manjur Alam. He was an important link in the chain of supply of cannibalised weapons and used to receive the weapons from Alam and had supplied the same to Maoists and criminals in Bihar and Jharkhand.
