The police on Wednesday busted an illegal explosive factory in Janjgir-Champa district of Chhatisgarh and recovered a huge cache including fuse wires, sulphur powder and ammonium nitrate.
The police suspect that explosives were being supplied to ultras in Maoist-affected Rajnandgaon district.
"Acting on a tip-off, a police party raided a plant owned by Rashid Ahmed Khan, located on the Champa-Korba road in Champa, where they seized 25 quintals of fuse wire, 70 kg of ammonium nitrate, around 100 quintals of sulphur powder and six drums of aluminium, used in manufacturing explosives," Superintendent of Police (SP) Shaikh Arif Hussain told PTI.
"We had information that explosives were being supplied to Rajnandgaon and neighbouring states and we cannot rule out the possibility of a Maoist connection," he said.
Rashid Ahmed's son, Firoz Ahmed (55) too has been arrested in this connection, he said, adding that efforts are on to trace Rashid and several others allegedly involved with the manufacturing unit.
Allegedly, Rashid holds a license for storing upto 15 kilograms of explosives, but he illegally ran a manufacturing unit, he said.
The arrested is being questioned and further investigation is on, he said.
