Mumbai: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) may take over the case of theft of INSAS rifle and two magazines with 40 rounds from the possession of an Agniveer at Navy Nagar considering that the suspects’ alleged Naxal link has emerged as the main focus of the probe.The crime branch, which is currently investigating the case, is likely to invoke stringent sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act or UAPA Investigators have also recovered deleted videos from the mobile phone of arrested Agniveer Rakesh Ramesh Dubbula, which they believe could hold key evidence.On Thursday, teams from the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), and the NIA jointly interrogated accused Rakesh and his brother Umesh. Their two mobile phones have been sent for forensic examination and retrieving the deleted data. Police have written to the mobile service provider to provide their call detail records (CDR) of the past 1.5 years. Investigators said the two were evasive about their motive. “One of them claimed to have procured the weapon to eliminate his father’s enemy, while the other said it was to target a rival in their village. They also mentioned wanting to flaunt the rifle in their village. These explanations appear misleading,” an officer said. Police say they believe Rakesh is the key conspirator. He allegedly called his brother to Mumbai from Telangana and asked him to wait while he entered the Navy premises at AP Tower on Sept 6. “They chose Ganpati Visarjan day, expecting that police would be busy with bandobast duties and frisking at railway stations could be avoided,” said an official. After stealing the weapon, the accused went straight to CSMT railway station, from where they took a train to Kalyan and then another train to Pune and Secunderabad. The stolen rifle and ammunition were recovered from their home in a small village only after police tracked them across 65 CCTV cameras from Cuffe Parade to Asifabad. “If we were late by a few hours, the brothers might have handed over the rifle to suspected Naxalites,” the officer added. Sources said their village is a densely Naxal-affected area, and the local police informed the Mumbai police that more than four to five Naxals from their village have surrendered to the police recently.Questions are being raised over the delay in filing the FIR. The theft occurred on Sept 6, but Navy officials lodged the complaint only 24 hours later, police said.
