Police found two muzzle-loading guns, 10 barrels of guns, gun-butts (Representational)
The police in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh have busted a country-made weapons factory in neighbouring Malkangiri district of Odisha, and arrested a Maoist sympathiser who was operating it to supply the arms to Maoists, the police said on Sunday.
The action was taken based on the inputs provided by a Maoist identified as Madvi Joga (40), who was arrested from Gadiras police station area of Sukma on Friday, Sukma Superintendent of Police Shalabh Sinha told news agency PTI.
Acting on a tip-off about the movement of the wanted ultra Joga near Rasavaya village, a team of police raided the spot on Friday and apprehended him, he said.
A muzzle-loading gun was recovered from the possession of Joga, who was an active as a member of Maoists' Katekalyan area committee and carried a reward of Rs 5 lakh on his head, he said. He was allegedly associated with the outlawed CPI (Maoist) since the past 7-8 years and tasked with supplying county-made guns to ultras in Sukma, he said.
"During his interrogation, he revealed that a home-run country-made gun manufacturing unit for supplying firearms to Maoists was being run by Maoist sympathiser Jagganath Barnai in Bhasriguda village in the neighbouring Malkangiri district (Odisha)," he said.
Later, a raid was conducted there in coordination with Malkangiri police and Barnai (45) was arrested, he said.
Police found two muzzle-loading guns, 10 barrels of guns, gun-butts, along with tools used for making weapons from his house, he said.
The investigation revealed that Barnai had supplied at least 35 muzzle-loading guns to Maoists in Sukma in the last one year, Sinha said, adding that further investigation into the matter is underway.