Overview
- On May 27, a group of 25–30 Maoists intercepted a truck bound for a Banko stone quarry in Sundargarh and looted nearly five tonnes of commercial explosives.
- Joint operations by Odisha Police, Jharkhand Police and CRPF in the Saranda forest have retrieved 3.8 tonnes of the stolen material.
- Authorities have secured over 25,000 gelatin sticks, 400 detonators and 22,500 metres of detonating fuse wires from recovered stockpiles.
- Warehouse owner Shravan Agrawal and the truck driver were arrested for violating standard operating procedures by failing to inform police of the explosives’ movement.
- The Special Investigation Team is probing procedural breaches in explosives storage and transit with statewide SOP compliance audits under way.