Man held with 3 pistols, 25 live cartridges in Tripura

A man was arrested from a hotel in North Tripura district after three pistols and 25 live cartridges were seized from his possession, police said on Wednesday.

He was arrested from the hotel in Dharmanagar, about 175 km from here, the police said.

Acting on a tip-off, the police carried out a raid at the hotel on late Tuesday night and arrested one Pranjit Das, a criminal and recovered the arms and live cartridges from his possession, the Superintendent of Police (SP) of North Tripura district, Bhanupada Chakraborty, told PTI.

Silencers were attached to the pistols, Chakraborty said, adding, Das came from Silchar in Assam by train and was staying in the hotel in Dharmanagar.

On September 24, three youths were arrested with two country-made pistols and live ammunition from Sabroom in Tripura South district, a police officer said.

They were remanded to five days police custody after they were produced before a court, he said.

Those pistols and cartridges came from Munger in Bihar, the officer added.

"The kingpin of the Sabroom incident was Dipankar Sen, also a criminal, who is the brother-in-law of Pranjit Das and both of them are from Kamala Sagar area in West Tripura district," the SP said.

He also said that it is believed that an arms-smuggling racket is active in Tripura.

"We have also started an investigation to find out if an arms-smuggling racket is active," Chakraborty said.