Bhubaneswar: Balangir police on Wednesday seized a huge cache of explosives and detonators that were stolen in two separate incidents in February and March.

The police ruled out any links of Maoists with the incident and said that the motive of the crime was to use the explosives to trigger blasts in stone quarries.

The police have arrested two accused - Chitram Putel, 23, and Giridhari Behera, 22, - both natives of Balangir district. They have also arrested three receivers of the materials - Pankaj Agarwal, 24, Sujit Singh, 22, and Banamali Thappa, 38. The police have also seized thousands of detonators and other explosive materials from the accused.

The first incident had taken place on February 27 when a group of miscreants had broke through the gate of an explosives store of Kailash Agrawal and decamped with detonators. "The accused had also thrown some of the stolen articles in a well. A case was registered at Kantabanjhi police station," said a police officer.

The second incident had taken place on March 3 when the same group of miscreants had attacked the men deployed in the explosives store of Pradip Narayan Khandelwal and decamped with explosive materials in a van. A case was then lodged at Belpada police station.

"A number of stone quarries have been operating in the district for which a group pf people are targeting the explosive stores. The accused are earning huge money by selling the explosives to the quarry owners at cheap price. We are also trying to nab others involved in the case," said a police officer.

In November last year, Balangir police had seized explosives worth Rs 10 lakh and had arrested three persons.