Army colonel in dock over cash, pistol in luggage
A colonel of the Indian Army, deputed to a paramilitary force and posted in the northeast, has landed in the dock after a pistol and Rs.19 lakh cash was recovered from his bag in Barama in Assam last week. A counter-intelligence probe has been initiated against him.
Colonel B.B. Yadav, on deputation to Assam Rifles as the commanding officer of a battalion, came under adverse notice after Assam's Baksa district police, acting on a tip-off, recovered the cash and pistol from a truck that was transporting his personal belongings.
The officer, belonging to the Sikh Light Infantry regiment of the Indian Army, was moving his belongings from Tripura, where he was posted till recently, to Lucknow on being transferred, and the truck was intercepted on Oct 3, according to an officer in the army headquarters here.
An Assam Rifles trooper was also travelling on the truck, which contained several locked trunks. The trooper had they keys for all the trunks, except three, the officer said.
The police then got the three specific trunks broken open in the presence of a magistrate and found the cash and the pistol in them.
Apart from the police, the Assam Rifles and the army headquarters have also opened separate investigations against the colonel and are trying to find out the source of the funds and the ownership of the pistol, the officer said. The Income Tax Department too has been alerted about the cash.
The truck, officers said, was allowed by the police to proceed to Lucknow with the other trunks, but the three opened trunks and their contents were now in the possession of the Baksa police.
Assam Rifles, India's oldest paramilitary force involved in counter-insurgency operations in the northeastern states, is under the control of the home ministry. It recruits its own troopers and junior officers from the region, but the units are commanded by army officers on deputation.
