Cooch Behar, April 13: A sub-inspector of police has been suspended after his service revolver was stolen from his trunk kept in the barracks on the Kotwali police station campus here.

Although the firearm was allegedly burgled on April 5, the Cooch Behar district police authorities had so far kept it under wraps.

Anil Kumar, the Cooch Behar district police chief, today confirmed the theft. “We have suspended sub-inspector Prashant Chamling for negligence of duty. The revolver has not yet been traced,” Kumar said.

The same evening, the burglars also broke open the trunk of an assistant sub-inspector and took away Rs 18,000 in cash. The police, however, refused comment on this.

Police sources said Chamling used to live in the barracks. He and the assistant sub-inspector, who shared the room, were both away on April 4. When they returned the next day, they found that the lock of the door to the room had been broken. Inside the room, the trunks were also lying with broken locks, the sources said.

The police have not managed to unearth a single clue more then a week after the theft. “We are leaving no stones unturned to find out the firearm,” Kumar said.

On Friday, the service revolver of P.T. Sherpa, a constable and a bodyguard of the public prosecutor of the Darjeeling court, was stolen from his car in Champasari in Siliguri.

The constable, too, was suspended. The firearm is yet to be traced.