Ban Flikpart, demands Congress as online arms purchases found in Aurangabad

Congress' Maharashtra leader Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil on Wednesday demanded that the online shopping portal Flipkart should be banned as it was found to be source of purchase for arms seized in the state's Aurangabad.

Referring to the discovery by Aurangabad police on Tuesday that a large number of weapons were allegedly bought online through Flipkart, he said this was setting a "dangerous trend".

"It is shocking that such arms are now being openly traded online. Police have seized 28 weapons including swords, choppers, knives, kukris, guptis, etc, which were purchased from Flipkart's online website," said Vikhe-Patil, who is the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly.

Online shopping has become the norm in recent years and now it has come to fore that even dangerous and illegal activities like this are taking place, he pointed out.

Vikhe-Patil said the government must probe who bought the weapons and why, especially since Aurangabad has just revived from a bout of communal riots earlier this month, and demanded to know whether these weapons purchase were connected with the recent violence.

The Aurangabad police's Crime Branch on Tuesday seized over two dozen weapons from Mukundwadi and Nageshwarwadi in the city and nabbed seven persons, including the manager of a courier company.

Investigations revealed that the arms were booked through Flikpart and were delivered from Punjab's Amritsar, through courier company, Estacort Services Pvt. Ltd.

The police teams raided the courier company and seized the weapons, while Aurangabad Police Commissioner Milind Bharambe said he would recommend to the Home Ministry to ban such online purchase of arms.

Besides, he said police are probing how many more weapons had been ordered like this since Aurangabad is a sensitive city.

--IANS

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