Rourkela, Aug. 16: Bondamunda police have arrested a history-sheeter from his residence for possession of illegal firearms.

The police have also seized one country-made revolver, one 9mm automatic pistol, a batman brand country-made firearm, 10 live ammunitions, three swords, one dagger and seven knives, apart from Rs 2.08 lakh in cash, nine ATM cards, two chequebooks, stamp papers, a non-gear bike and one motorcycle from the possession of the accused, Sandhir Singh, 37, last night.

The police said Singh had criminal antecedents and was under surveillance for quiet sometime. "We had information that he possessed illegal firearms," said deputy inspector of police (zone 3) P.K. Panigrahi.

He said: "We found a few chequebooks. It seemed that he had lent money to people. The way he maintained his accounts indicates he was into money lending practices."

Panigrahi said: "I'm not sure whether the accused was into illegal gun-running or he had kept the weapons for other purposes."

The police have booked him under the Illegal Arms Act and the Illegal Money Lending Act.

Singh, who is originally from Chapra in Bihar, had been living in the city after his father retired from the Indian railways. In 2003, he was arrested for involvement in a murder case. Last year, he was held for breaching law and order.

Haul of explosives

Police seized huge quantities of explosives on Tuesday from the residence of a businessman at Kakrigumma village in Koraput district.

Acting on a tip-off, a team from Damanjodi police station, led by the sub-divisional police officer of Sunabeda, Smith Parama, raided the house of the trader and seized the huge cache of explosives, including 45 bags of alumina hydrate, electronic detonators, five bundles of wire and 16 cans of diesel.