Gunrunner with 20 firearms arrested

An inter-state gun trading racket has been busted with the arrest of a person carrying 20 improvised sophisticated semi-automatic pistols from east Vinod Nagar area here, police said today.
With the arrest, the Special Cell of police claimed to have busted a gang that used to procure semi-automatic pistols from Dhar district in Madhya Pradesh and sell them to criminal elements in Delhi, said P S Kushwah, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell).
Working on specific information, a special cell team arrested Firozabad resident Ajay Bhardwaj (39) from East Vinod Nagar and seized from him the 20 semi-automatic pistols which he had brought from Dhar, said the officer.

The team was set up in view of the growing use of sophisticated firearms in commission of robberies/dacoities, extortions and other heinous crimes in Delhi and the national capital region (NCR) over the past few years, police said.
It said that in most cases, illicit weapons were manufactured in Khargone, Sendhwa and Dhar districts of Madhya Pradesh and were smuggled into Delhi and NCR.
The team had travelled to almost whole of UP West, UP East, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh region to collect data on the modus operandi and area of operation of each gang. It had also prepared a road plan of their movements in rural belts and synchronised the same with technical details, the police said.

The accused, who was arrested on August 26, worked for his brother Prashant Bhardwaj, who is allegedly the main receiver of the illegal arms from Dhar, and was also suspected of supplying 5-6 consignments of illegal weapons in Delhi-NCR to the contacts of Prashant, the officer said.
Ajay was getting Rs 1,000 from Prashant for every firearm he supplied, said Kushwah, adding that further investigation is in progress.