Forest guard held for stealing service pistol in Chengam

Forest guard arrested for stealing service pistol from forest range officer, arrested and lodged in sub-jail in Chengam town.

A 44-year-old forest guard was arrested in his house in Chengam town in Tiruvannamalai on Tuesday for stealing 9mm Glock G17 modelled service pistol, magazine and a cleaning rod that belonged to the forest range officer a fortnight ago.

Police said the arrested person was identified as S. Muniappan. He was working with the Forest Department for nearly two decades in various forest ranges. In Chengam forest range, he was working for the past two years.

Initial inquiry revealed that Muniappan was assigned office duty at Chengam forest range office a fortnight ago as part of sentry duty. A box that contained a stolen pistol, magazine and a pistol cleaning rod was kept in the room. After his work, he told police that he carried the box along with him to his house.

During routine maintenance of the pistol, S. Ragupathy (56), forest range officer (Chengam), searched for the box, which was missing. He reported the incident to his senior officers including Yogesh Kumar Darg, District Forest Officer (DFO), Tiruvannamalai.

Following the incident, an inquiry committee was set up to trace the missing pistol. The investigation revealed that Muniappan had stolen the box while on duty as he was excited to handle a pistol, which he never did in his lifetime. The probe also found that the service pistol was not used by Muniappan.

Based on an alert by forest officials, Chengam police arrested the forest guard. A case was registered. Later, Muniappan was lodged at sub-jail in Chengam town. A probe is underway.