Police bust inter-state arms smuggling racket in Punjab

Chandigarh, Sep 03: The Punjab Police has busted an arms manufacturing and smuggling racket with the arrest of two Madhya Pradesh residents, DGP Gaurav Yadav said on Friday.

The duo were apprehended from Madhya Pradesh by the Counter Intelligence Unit of Punjab Police with the help of MP Police, he said.

They were involved in large-scale manufacturing of arms and their supply to Punjab as well as other states, news agency PTI reported.

The arrested duo were identified as Bhorelal alias Manish Bade of village Ratwa in Khargon and Kailash Mal Singh of village Dutt Pahari in Burhanpur district.

The police have recovered 55 pistols of .32 bore from their possession.

DGP Yadav said the development came three weeks after the Counter Intelligence Unit had arrested two persons from Amritsar after recovering four pistols from their possession.

In this connection, an FIR was registered under various provisions of the IPC and the Arms Act in Amritsar on August 10, he said.

He said that during the investigation of backward and forward linkages, it came to the fore that the recovered weapons were supplied by an interstate illegal weapons manufacturer and supplier suspected to be based in Burhanpur district in Madhya Pradesh.

"Following these inputs, a 15-member team of Counter Intelligence, Amritsar led by Inspector Inderdeep Singh was sent to MP on Tuesday and the team managed to trace and apprehend these two arms suppliers on Thursday," he said.

The DGP said the operation was underway and there is a high possibility of more recovery of arms and ammunition.

The Punjab Police said in a statement that it has adopted a proactive approach to bust these illicit weapons and drug supply networks from point-of-origin to make the state free of crime and drugs.