RAIPUR - The leader of a three-member gang was arrested Monday near the Chhattisgarh capital for stealing 14 live bombs from a goods train last month, police said. The bombs were meant for the Indian Army.

Two of the accused - Amit Sharma, 21, and Satyendra Giri, 16 - were caught Dec 27 while their gang leader Vishnu Verma was on the run.

Verma, 20, was caught in the early hours of Monday from the outskirts of Raipur by the Railway Protection Force (RPF).

Raipur district police chief Amit Kumar told IANS: ‘The three men barged into a sealed wagon of a goods train at Mandhar station Dec 26 night. It had arms and ammunition meant for the Indian Army.

‘They broke open the wagon when it halted at Mandhar station, 20 km from here, and took away seven boxes assuming they contained steel. The train was on its way to the Central Ammunition Depot Pulgaon of Wardha in Maharashtra from the ordnance factory in Badmal, Orissa.’

When the three found bombs in the boxes, they threw six boxes into another goods train loaded with iron ore and one box was left at the station backyard, police said.

The goods train loaded with iron-ore, which had live bombs on it, reached a plant of Monnet Ispat and Energy Ltd the next morning. The bombs were recovered when plant staff unloaded the iron ore.

The 105-mm size live bombs were defused at an isolated location by experts called by the state police from an ordnance factory at Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh, officials said.