370 arrested, firearms seized in a special police raid

Barasat, Mar 23 (UNI) At least 370 people were arrested and a cache of firearms was seized in a special raid, conducted by police last night in North 24 Parganas, to comply with the Election Commission's directive to execute 1113 pending arrest warrants.

North 24 Parganas Superintendent of Police Praveen Kumar said here today, ''We conducted special raids in eleven police station areas of Barrackpore, Barasat and Bidhanagar sub-divisions yesterday and seized 13 firearms, 15 pieces of ammunition and 10 bombs.'' He said 100 people were taken into custody after issuing arrest warrants were issued against them, Mr Kumar said.

Police confiscated cash amounting to Rs 2876 and a few gamblers were also arrested.

With the West Bengal Assembly Elections round the corner, police had been conducting several such special night raids from February 1.

During eight such raids, police arrested a few hundred criminals and anti-socials in specific cases or as precautionary measures to make the coming elections peaceful.

About 76 firearms, 82 pieces of ammunition and 100 bombs were seized during these raids, besides a few pieces of other deadly weapons, police said.

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