Hyderabad, September 3, 2026 — Army personnel searching for weapons and ammunition stolen from the 20 Madras Regiment armoury in Bollarum have stumbled upon 160 commercial electric detonators abandoned near the unit’s firing range, leading police to register a separate case under the Explosive Substances Act.
The detonators were discovered late Wednesday evening behind the rear boundary wall of the 20 Madras Regiment firing range in the Secunderabad Cantonment area. Police said the explosives were found on private land near Golf Enclave, falling under the jurisdiction of Bollarum police station in the Malkajgiri Commissionerate, and not within Army-owned property.
According to officials, the detonators had been packed in eight bundles containing 20 devices each and placed inside a light-green plastic bucket. Army personnel came across the bucket while combing areas surrounding the military establishment as part of the continuing search for rifles, pistols and ammunition stolen from the regiment’s armoury.
An Army Subedar subsequently alerted Bollarum police, following which local police personnel and the Malkajgiri bomb disposal squad reached the location. A sniffer dog named Rudra was also deployed during the examination of the site.
The bomb disposal team identified the recovered material as 33A-size commercial electric detonators, which are generally used for controlled blasting operations in sectors such as mining, quarrying and construction. The 160 detonators, estimated to be worth approximately Rs 32,000, were seized and shifted to a secure location.
A Bollarum police officer said the explosives were discovered only because Army personnel were carrying out an extensive search for the missing firearms and ammunition. Police are now attempting to determine where the detonators originated, who left them at the site and how long they had remained there.
North Zone Deputy Commissioner of Police Ch. Sridhar, however, clarified that investigators had so far found no connection between the detonators and either the Army establishment or the recent weapons theft.
“The detonators were not found in army area but in a private venture and it is not an army property. The detonators are suspected to be used by land or plot developers there at least before one year or above,” Sridhar said.
Police have registered a case against unidentified persons for abandoning the explosives and have launched an investigation into their source. Investigators are expected to examine whether the detonators had previously been procured for construction, mining or land-development work in the surrounding area.
Officials have stressed that there is presently no confirmed evidence linking the commercial detonators with military stores or with the disappearance of weapons from the 20 Madras Regiment armoury. Police said developments concerning the arms-theft investigation would be communicated separately.
The unusual recovery nevertheless came amid an intensive multi-agency search triggered by the theft of a substantial quantity of weapons and ammunition from the 20th Battalion, The Madras Regiment, at Bollarum.
The theft was discovered at around 7.50 a.m. on August 31 after Army personnel opened the unit’s kote and battalion magazine and found that locks securing the premises and weapon-storage boxes had allegedly been forcibly broken. The military stores had last been physically accounted for at approximately 6 p.m. on August 30.
Following the discovery, a Lieutenant Colonel of 20 Madras lodged a complaint with Bollarum police, triggering a major investigation involving the Army, local police and Military Intelligence.
The missing inventory reportedly includes four AK-203 assault rifles, one INSAS rifle, several 9 mm pistols, a civilian-calibre pistol, weapon magazines, a night-vision device and a large quantity of ammunition. Authorities have been conducting extensive searches in and around the military establishment in an effort to trace the stolen material.
The main body of the battalion, including its commanding officer, was reportedly away at the Pokhran field-firing range in Rajasthan when the theft occurred. Investigators are examining several aspects of the security breach, including access to the armoury, security arrangements around the store and the circumstances surrounding the alleged failure or switching off of surveillance systems.
Military Intelligence has joined the investigation, while a court of inquiry has also been ordered by the Army to establish the circumstances under which service weapons could have disappeared from a secured military facility. Personnel and others who may have had access to the area have been questioned as investigators attempt to reconstruct events surrounding the theft.
The recovery of the 160 detonators has now resulted in two separate investigations in the Bollarum area. While one concerns commercial explosive material apparently abandoned on private land adjoining the Army firing-range boundary, the other involves the theft of service weapons and ammunition from inside a military establishment.
Police have cautioned against linking the two incidents without evidence. As of Thursday, the search for the stolen weapons and ammunition remained underway, while investigators were separately working to establish the origin and ownership of the recovered detonators.
