Two Held in Theft of 400-Year-Old Cannon From MP Fort
Artillery piece yet to be traced
Bhopal: Two people, hailing from Rajasthan’s Karauli district, were on Sunday arrested in connection with the daring theft of a 400-year-old cannon, weighing around 3,500 tons, from the historic fort of Narwar in Shivpuri district in Madhya Pradesh last fortnight, police said.
Acting on a tip-off that the two accused, Aman Kumar Meena and Timmuram Meena, were travelling to Shivpuri from Karauli district in a pickup van that was used to carry the stolen cannon from Narwar fort to an undisclosed place in Karauli district, the Madhya Pradesh police arrested them and seized the vehicle, a senior district police officer said.
“Interrogation of the two accused was on to trace out the cannon hidden by them purportedly in Gavda area in Karauli district”, the police officer said, unwilling to be quoted.
The Madhya Pradesh police had earlier scanned the CCTVs in the surrounding areas of the fort and the toll plazas in the nearby toll plazas on the National Highway and identified the pickup van carrying the stolen cannon to Rajasthan.
Later, the police in Karauli district were alerted and a joint operation involving police personnel of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan was launched to identify the accused and recover the cannon.
The Madhya Pradesh police were alerted by the Rajasthan police about the movement of the two accused in the pickup van from Karauli to Shivpuri, leading to their arrest, sources said.
Suspecting that the cannon is buried in an area in Gavdi in Karauli district, the police started scanning the area with the use of metal detectors to recover the artillery piece.
“We cannot reveal much about it at this stage”, the police officer said, unwilling to be quoted.
The fort, built on the Vindhya Range of hills in Madhya Pradesh, spreads over eight km and is under protection of the state archaeology department.
According to the police, the accused had first attempted to steal the historic cannon on July three and hired around two dozen labourers for the purpose.
However, they had failed to bring the cannon down from the place where it was preserved in the fort due to its weight and came back after a few days armed with logistics such as a crane and JCB machine to bring it down and transport it in the pickup van.
The watchman of the fort on July 16 found that one of 14 cannons in the fort was missing and reported the matter to the police, bringing the theft to light.
