Magazines, or stores for explosives – especially those located in Naxalism or terror-affected areas – continue to be the target for audacious thefts, according to data received via a Right To Information (RTI) application filed with the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO).Detonators, a small explosive device or blasting cap, continue to see the largest number of recorded thefts – reported in thousands – as per both current and past data.Information received from PESO reveals that there has been a major theft of explosives from a magazine in Janjgir Champa, a district in Naxalism-affected Chhattisgarh, on August 6, 2023. It could be a coincidence, but just two months later, on October 3, 2023, the Government of India banned the manufacturing, possession and import of electric detonators in view of “security concerns and public safety.” Electric detonators, the government notification stated, are “dangerous” devices. The ban was announced in 2023, but was to be implemented fully only from April 2025.PESO gave details of the stolen stockpile of explosives. In all, 1,829 detonators were stolen in three different categories from Janjgir Champa. Of these, 1,688 were of the “supreme AED” type; 116 listed as “instantaneous electric detonators” and 25 being short-delay detonators.Besides the detonators, 110 kgs of Class 2 gel (Kelvix powder, an emulsion explosive) and 3,000 meters of detonating fuse were stolen from the magazine in Janjgir Champa. According to PESO, following the theft, an FIR was filed and a showcause notice issued after four weeks to the police and the District Magistrate.As per the information, a significantly high number of detonators (also of Class 6 type, or super electric detonators) have been stolen from magazines and vans over a 10-year period in Uttar Pradesh. The PESO unit in Agra has provided data for 61,311 detonators being stolen, but without specifics of the dates of theft or location of the magazines. The PESO unit has also not clarified if the 61,311 detonators were stolen in one or several heists.Earlier batches of data obtained by The Indian Express had also revealed a similar pattern – detonators topping the list of stolen explosive materials. A previous RTI application filed by The Indian Express revealed that in two years (2010 and 2011), as many as 2,18,624 detonators were stolen from magazines and vans in Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.Story continues below this adIn addition to this, as much as 1,907 kg of ammonium nitrate-based explosives, 3,500 metres of detonating fuse and 16.58 tonnes of emulsion matrix (a key ingredient for making explosives) were stolen from across the country in these two years.In October 2007, The Indian Express, in a series titled ‘The Ticking Time Bomb,’ had reported how PESO had received information about thousands of detonators, slurry explosives and fuses being stolen from government magazines. Back then, the police had managed to recover only a fraction of the stolen stockpiles.Data accessed for the years 2004-2006 showed that the scale of theft was staggering: 86,899 detonators, 150 kg of slurry explosives, 52,740 meters of detonating fuse and 419 kg of gelatin sticks were looted from magazines and explosive vans.The data then showed that the largest number of detonators (19,800) were stolen from Shankerpur in Madhya Pradesh, while the largest number of safety fuses (11,975) and the biggest volume of slurry explosives (19,700 kgs) were stolen from Dantewada in Chhattisgarh.Story continues below this adPresently, besides Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh, PESO offices at other places have claimed they have no information about any theft of explosives. Among those who have said that they had “nil” information are Dehradun, Prayagraj, Vadodara, Patna, Faridabad, Bhubaneswar, Ernakulam, Navi Mumbai, Secunderabad, Jaipur and Guwahati.PESO officials in two cities cited other reasons for the “nil” information. The Controller of Explosives of Mangalore denied the data on grounds of it being too “massive.” The communication stated: “…this kind of massive data on so many variables and compilation of the same for a period of 10 years is beyond the scope of RTI Act.” The Joint Chief Controller of Explosives from Kolkata also did not supply the data saying it was “sensitive” in nature and was not being provided as per section 8 (dealing with exemptions from disclosure) of the RTI Act.Ritu Sarin is Executive Editor (News and Investigations) at The Indian Express group. Her areas of specialisation include internal security, money laundering and corruption. Sarin is one of India’s most renowned reporters and has a career in journalism of over four decades. She is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) since 1999 and since early 2023, a member of its Board of Directors. She has also been a founder member of the ICIJ Network Committee (INC). She has, to begin with, alone, and later led teams which have worked on ICIJ’s Offshore Leaks, Swiss Leaks, the Pulitzer Prize winning Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Implant Files, Fincen Files, Pandora Papers, the Uber Files and Deforestation Inc. She has conducted investigative journalism workshops and addressed investigative journalism conferences with a specialisation on collaborative journalism in several countries. ... Read MoreStay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd