June 3: Dinesh Chandra Roy’s dream of making a fast buck was shattered last night when his colleagues unknowingly laid a trap for him and his brother. Roy, a constable with the Border Security Force (BSF)’s 48th battalion posted at Bhuj on the Indo-Pak border in Gujarat, was caught by the BSF trying to sell “sophisticated weapons”. He was in Jalpaiguri on leave.

Acting on a tip-off, the BSF’s intelligence wing had lured Dinesh and Haren to come out into the open to sell their cache of arms.

“We had information that the Roy brothers were trying to sell two sophisticated weapons, including an automatic pistol made in Italy and another of Chinese make at Bhakuabari village near Dotrapara border outpost. The place is near Fulbari in Jalpaiguri district. We sent a few of our men from the intelligence wing, posing as buyers. Some BSF jawans hid behind tea bushes and waited for the brothers to come out and strike the deal,” said B.S. Sandu, the deputy inspector-general of BSF, north Bengal.

The Roy brothers came to the spot with two weapons and four magazines. When the officers challenged them, the duo opened fire. The jawans retaliated and Dinesh was injured.

“While interrogating them, we came to know he was a BSF jawan posted in Bhuj. While Dinesh has been admitted to North Bengal Medical College and Hospital, Haren has been handed over to the Jalpaiguri police,” he added.

According to police officials, Dinesh had procured two revolvers and a few magazines from Gujarat and was likely to “sell the booty at his native place” in Bhakuabari.

“We needed to check whether he had purchased the arms illegally or had had stolen them from his department,” said a senior police officer of Jalpaiguri.

With the Indo-Bangla border located just three kilometres from Bhakuabari, the BSF and police officials are not ruling out the brothers’ involvement with militants.