The army and police have been coordinating the operation and hope to solve the case shortly, say sources.
The two imposters who breached the security of Pachmarhi army camp on Friday to decamp with two Insas rifles and some ammunition. The duo posed as army officers and decamped with two Insas rifles and ammunition from army cantonment at Pachmarhi after conning sentries at a military check post. Surprisingly the duo roamed the camp for almost two hours on Friday morning in the unit before tricking the sentries to part with their guns.
The sepoy who belongs to Miani village in Hoshiarpur district of Punjab was under training in the musical band from March 2018 to June 2018 before being posted bacjk into his regiment. The police suspect he could have been lured into the militant pro- Khalsa movement. The vital clue was found from the TV grab of a roadside eatery where the duo got a meal packed.
Hoshangabad district superintendent of police ML Chhari said, "We have got a CCTV grab of the accused who got their food packed from roadside eatery at Pachmarhi before committing the theft. The CCTV camera put at the dhaba had captured them moving (in hooded sweatshirts)," said Chhari.
While one wore a black hooded sweat shirt the other wore a yellow one the dhaba as seen in the CCTV grab showed.
The duo asked a sentry at the check post to call the other jawans for an assembly. The two imposters asked another sentry our there to call a junior commissioned officer from the camp. The two sentries obeying the commands left the post and their Insas assault rifles loaded with magazines of 20 live cartridges. They picked up the rifles and fled.
The driver of the taxi they hired from Piparia railway station to reach the Army camp in Pachmarhi and return, has said they were speaking to each other in Punjabi accent, he said.
They entered the camp around 1.30 a.m. and left it around 3.13 a.m. on Friday, investigation suggests, the SP said.
Additional Director General of Police (Intelligence) Dr SW Naqvi said the leads available so far suggest the two had alighted at Piparia from the train that arrived from Jabalpur. Other agencies are also engaged in cracking the theft. Multiple agencies are working to crack the theft. However, it will be early to say the police are closing in on the suspects, said the senior police officials.
After the incident the police had sounded a high alert across the state and beefed up security at the vital establishments.
( With inputs from IANS )