A doctor who has been sanctioned by the state medical board was arrested after grenades were found near his home, but authorities say the arrest was not tied to a car bombing that critically wounded the board's chairman.
Dr. Randeep Mann, an internal medicine specialist from Russellville, was arrested by federal agents Wednesday and arraigned the following day on a charge of unregistered possession of hand grenades, said Austin Banks, a special agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in New Orleans. Mann remained in federal custody Friday.
Banks said the arrest resulted from a complaint to the Pope County Sheriff's Office about grenades found in a field near Mann's residence and was not tied to the investigation into the Feb. 4 West Memphis car bombing that wounded Dr. Trent Pierce. Pierce remained in critical condition at a Memphis, Tenn., hospital.
A woman who answered the phone at Mann's residence on Friday hung up without commenting. Court officials did not know what lawyer was representing Mann, and the case file was not immediately available.
The state board restricted Mann's prescription-writing privileges in July 2006 after several of his patients died from a lethal mix of drugs or overdose of prescription medicine. Mann maintained the issue was not the prescriptions but the patients' abuse of the drugs. The board allowed Mann to keep his medical license but barred him from prescribing narcotics.
Russellville is 60 miles northwest of Little Rock.
