The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has initiated a probe into seizure of rocket launchers and ammunition from Gandhi Nagar and Jagdeo Nagar localities of Aurangabad town after over a year. The Aurangabad police seized the devices on March 25, 2012.

They handed over documents pertaining to the FIRs lodged with Aurangabad town and mufassil police stations to an NIA team from Lucknow on Saturday.

The NIA took over investigation of the two cases on the ministry of home affairs’ directive.

Aurangabad superintendent of police (SP) Daljeet Singh said the documents were submitted to an NIA team on the recommendations of the state police headquarters.

“The cases were related to the recovery of two rocket launchers, around 3,600 live cartridges of sophisticated weapons and a large quantity of explosives from Ramabandh in the district,” he said.

The SP said the police had filed a chargesheet in the district court against three CPI(Maoist) cadres — Udit Narain Singh alias Tulsi alias Toofan, Akhilesh alias Manoj Singh and Arjun alias Mani Yadav — in October 2012.

He added that the seized consignment was to be delivered to one Arvind, a leader of the banned outfit operating in Chhattisgarh. All the three rebels were charged with waging a war against the government. During interrogation, Mani, a resident of Salempur village under Karauna police station in Jehanabad district, admitted that they used to supply firearms and explosives to Arvind on a regular basis.

He also revealed that the consignment was brought to Aurangabad from Calcutta in March last year.

But the police conducted a raid and seized the explosives, he said, adding that the rocket launchers were to be provided to a Chhattisgarh-based Maoist leader for the first time by his group.

Deputy inspector-general (Magadh range) Nayyar Hasnain Khan said earlier that an NIA team had interrogated the three CPI(Maoist) members arrested from Aurangabad. “The cases have been formally handed over to the agency,” he said, adding that the arrested arms suppliers had close links with those operating in states like Chhattisgarh.

One of the three arrested cadres, Akhilesh alias Manoj Singh, hails from Jharkhand’s Palamau district.

A senior officer posted in the state police headquarters said the decision to hand over the cases relating to recovery of rocket launchers from Aurangabad was taken in the wake of their inter-state ramifications.

He confirmed that the police headquarters had received a letter from the home ministry last September hinting at the possibility of the NIA handling the cases. “But we got a formal communiqué from the MHA only recently and the NIA took over the cases for investigation,” he said.