New Delhi: Ahead of Republic Day celebrations, the Delhi Police’s Special Cell have busted an inter-state weapons syndicate and recovered 34 pistols meant to be supplied to criminals in Delhi and its peripherals, said an official on Monday.
With the arrest of the two members of the syndicate, Naved Rana and Saleem both from District Shamli in Uttar Pradesh, the Delhi Police also unearthed an illegal weapon manufacturing unit operating in the Kandhla area near Shamli.
According to Ingit Pratap Singh, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell), on January 13, Naved was apprehended and he was carrying a high-quality sophisticated semi-automatic pistol loaded with three bullets and nine pistols (four high quality sophisticated semi-automatic pistols and five single shot country made pistols) inside a bag.
On interrogation, Naved disclosed that his brother Asif is a habitual criminal presently lodged at Muzaffarnagar Jail of Uttar Pradesh in various cases like Arms Act, Theft and NDPS Act.
“He was informed about Saleem by his brother Asif. He used to obtain illegal firearms and ammunition from source Saleem and used to supply them at various places in Delhi-NCR and UP to members of various infamous crime syndicates, including Gogi Gang. He used to get his commission on successful delivery of firearms and ammunition,” said the official.
“To bust the entire syndicate involved, further investigation was carried out confidentially which led to the arrest of the illegal arms and ammunition source. On January 20, Saleem was arrested,” said the DCP.
On interrogation, Saleem admitted being a manufacturer and supplier of illegal arms and ammunition and the weapons recovered from Naved were given by him on January 13.
“Saleem has been involved in illegal firearms and ammunition manufacturing cum trading since 2012-13. Initially, he started supplying such firearms locally to various end users and also got associated with the Mukeem Kala Gang,” said the official.
In 2015 only, Saleem was booked in four criminal cases, including a rioting case, a rape case and three cases under CLA Act, all registered at Kandhla police station near Shamli.
In 2015, he was involved with others for setting a police station on fire. In 2018, he was booked for the first time, for the offence under section 25 of the Arms Act. Thereafter in 2019, he was arrested in another riot case.
“Based upon Saleem disclosure, on January 21, the police team also busted the illegal arms manufacturing unit (factory) and huge cache of illegal firearms including 24 finished single shot country made pistols, six automatic pistols and tools used in manufacturing weapons were recovered successfully from a sugarcane field on a raid conducted at village- Kandhla in district Shamli,” said the DCP.
–IANS
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