They have also recovered a huge quantity of arms and ammunition from the security personnel. Ironically, the two arrested CRPF personnel were from the Rampur group centre to which a majority of the murdered CRPF personnel in Dantewada belonged.

Brijlal, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order), told reporters here that the kingpin of the gang was Jasodanandan Singh, a retired sub-inspector (armourer) of the Provincial Arms Constabulary (PAC), while the main supplier was CRPF trooper Vinod Paswan.

He said the state police had received intelligence inputs that some CRPF troopers and others have been stealing arms and ammunition from the armoury and selling them to criminals, following which a special task force (STF) was formed to put them under surveillance.

Brijlal said the police got suspicious after it was revealed that the ammunition used by the Maoists at Dantewada had been supplied to the troops in UP.

The arrests followed raids at several centres of the CRPF located at Moradabad, Jhansi, Rampur, Varanasi and some PAC camps in different parts of the state as also Ranchi in Jharkhand, STF sources said.

“It was found that a huge quantity of cartridges were supplied from Rampur to some anti-social elements in Allahabad,” they said.

Jasodanandan used to visit CRPF and PAC centres in different parts of the state to collect empty shells and later used to replace them with live ammunition. The main supply centres were CRPF group centre at Rampur and the Police Training Academy in Moradabad.

AK-47 and self loading rifles, magazines of Insas rifles, about 250 kg of empty shells, 6,000 live cartridges and arms components were recovered from the security personnel, he said. Some cell phones and cash were also seized from them.

“The arms and ammunition may have been supplied to naxalites. We are investigating it but the possibility cannot be ruled out,” he said.