New Delhi: A cop employed with Nagaland Police, four civilians and a middleman were arrested for stealing ammunition from a Nagaland Police armoury and attempting to transport it to Manipur, a state almost three months in the grip of ethnic violence.

One of those arrested is a top-level functionary of the group, National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah), reports say.

NDTV has reported that the six are accused of stealing thousands of rounds of ammunition to be used in INSAS automatic and in self-loading rifles.

Manipur itself is dealing with a stolen arms problem, with security forces repeatedly calling for the return of arms taken forcibly or stolen from armouries and police stations.

NDTV’s report says that the police inspector, Michael Yanthan, was allegedly paid Rs 4.25 lakh to get the ammunition.

The Hindu has reported that Nagaland police have constituted a panel headed by an inspector-general of police to probe the incident.

The matter came to light when on July 10, when Nagaland Police stopped a car at Chumukeidma in Nagaland. The car had three bags of rice, in which were “2,500 types of ammunition,” the Hindu report said. Yanthan, who was in charge of the police central store at Chumukeidma, was thus arrested.

The report also quoted an anonymous police officer who indicated to the paper that the stolen ammunition was intended to be sold in adjoining Manipur.

Nagaland’s Director-General of Police, Rupin Sharma told reporters that the conspiracy angle of the crime will only be revealed after the probe is complete.