With the arrest of five alleged smugglers, Delhi Police has busted two gunrunning rackets with links to Madhya Pradesh and recovered 43 sophisticated pistols in the last one week.
A new alarming trend has come to light for security agencies as after Munger in Bihar, a new centre for fabrication and supply of high-quality illicit firearms has developed in the thickly forested districts of Khargone, Barwani and Khandwa along Madhya Pradesh-Maharashtra border.
According to police, Khilafat Ali, a resident of Meerut, UP and Dinesh Gawane, a resident of Badwani district of MP, were arrested on the evening of August 12 from near Anand Vihar inter-state bus station and 10 semi automatic sophisticated pistols of 7.65 mm bore along with 10 magazines were recovered from their possession.
Later, Khilafat Ali led the police to a tube well in his agricultural field from where one more firearm was recovered.
"In this case, Dinesh was the supplier of firearms on behalf of a man, who has his manufacturing base in Sendhwa of Madhya Pradesh. Dinesh had come to Delhi to supply the firearms to Khilafat Ali when both of them were apprehended," Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) S N Shrivastava.
In the next operation, Devender and Dharmender, both residents of Aligarh district of UP, were arrested on August 18 from near Dhaula Kuan and a total of 20 firearms were recovered from their possession.
The duo had come to Delhi after collecting the consignment from a supplier, who has his base in Khargone of Madhya Pradesh. They had collected the consignment on behalf of a major supplier based in Aligarh, UP who had, after the consignment had been collected, re-routed them to Delhi for supply of the same to its intended recipient, who is yet to be identified, said Shrivastava.
During interrogation, the duo revealed that one Arun, who is also a co-peddler, was dispatched to Khargone to collect another consignment from the same supplier and that Arun was also likely to arrive in Delhi.
"Accordingly, a trap was laid near the Sarai Kale Khan ISBT during the next day and accused Arun was nabbed. A total of 12 firearms were recovered from his possession taking the total haul in this case to 32 pistols," said Shrivastava.
