Following Friday’s haul of arms and ammunition and even explosives from a house at Sandeshkhali by a joint search by the CBI and NSG, the procurement of the recovered arms are now under the scanner of the CBI.
Sources claimed, it had in a rough estimate claimed that the seizure of arms, allegedly some of which were found to have been sourced from a foreign country were worth of Rs 40 lakh and cartridges recovered were allegedly bought from Kolkata, claimed agency sources.
The investigation also revealed that three revolvers were allegedly sourced from the US and the recovery of one police revolver in the arsenal too caught the focus o f the agency, fuelling suspense on whether the arms had allegedly been procured using dark net. It is believed that the US-made arms are not usually available in the open market so only procurement through auction could be the way for such procurement.
Moreover, the foreign-made firearms, as investigation revealed so far, was worth Rs 7-8 lakh, a piece.
Some of the arms had license, allegedly bearing the name of Sheikh Shajahan and the cartridges found in the recovery were allegedly procured from Calcutta, as receipts found with the recovery site suggested, fuelling suspense on whether those cartridges had been purchased by Shahjahan or his aides.
The central agency had launched a manhunt against the elusive Abu Taleb Mollah, the alleged owner of the house from where the recovery was made on Friday.