BHOPAL: An armed gang of ‘international antique traffickers’ raided historic Narwar fort in Madhya Pradesh’s Shivpuri district and decamped with a rare cannon made of ‘astadhatu’ (eight-metal alloy), police said on Friday.
The antique heist took place in the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday, according to the police.
The gang, comprising around three dozen members, overpowered the guard of the fort and loaded the artillery piece on the vehicle they had brought with them and later fled the spot along with it, police said.
This was the second time; the fort was raided by the antique smugglers in the last two decades to steal a cannon.
In 2007, a cannon measuring seven feet in length and weighing 30 quintals was stolen from the fort and yet to be restored.
The gang had made the first attempt to steal the cannon on July five but could not succeed due to the logistic issue.
According to the police, the cannon mounted on the hilly fort was dismantled and rolled out of the fort by the gang members on July five.
But the cannon could not be moved further, leading the gang to abandon the operation then.
In the intervening night of July 15 and July 16, the gang carried a vehicle with them to the rear side of the fort along with the equipment to load it on the vehicle and transport it from the site, police said.
Deputy director of state archaeological department Tarun Kumar Srivastav called it a serious matter and said that he would make an inspection of the site to examine the security arrangements in the fort.
The fort was rebuilt by the Kachwaha Rajputs in the 10th century.
It originally had 14 canons. Of them 13 had remained before theft of a cannon, officials said.
All the cannons are made of ‘astadhatu’ and displayed in the courtyard of the fort.
A case of theft was registered in the Narwar police station on July 16, leading the police to begin an investigation.
Gwalior range inspector general of police Arvind Saxena said that poor surveillance infrastructure in the fort had created bottlenecks in the probe.
However, the police are examining CCTVs in the nearby areas to identify the miscreants.
He did not rule out the hand of interstate or international antique traffickers in the theft.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
