Arms syndicate busted ahead of R-Day, 2 held

PTI, Jan 23, 2023, 5:47 PM IST

Representative Image (Source: iStock)

New Delhi: Ahead of Republic Day, the Delhi Police has busted an arms syndicate by arresting two men and recovering 34 pistols from their possession, officials said on Monday.

The accused have been identified as Naved Rana (21) and Saleem (39), both residents Shamli district in Uttar Pradesh, they said.

The consignment of firearms was supposed to be delivered to a member of the Gogi gang, police said.

The police got a tip-off on January 13 and conducted a raid at a place on the Delhi-Jammu Road in Narela and nabbed Rana who had 10 pistols in his possession.

The police then identified Rana’s source — Saleem — who was arrested on Friday, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Ingit Pratap Singh said.

Based on the inputs given by Saleem, an illegal arms manufacturing unit was busted and huge cache of firearms and tools were recovered on Saturday from a sugarcane field at Kandhla village in Shamli district, the DCP said.

A total of 24 finished single shot country-made pistols, six semi-finished automatic pistols, 10 body screws of country-made pistols, 20 freshly-cut barrels, one old barrel etc were recovered, Singh said.

Rana told the police that his brother Asif is presently lodged in the Muzaffarnagar Jail of Uttar Pradesh in connection with various criminal cases, officials said.

He was informed about Saleem by Asif. He used to obtain illegal firearms and ammunition from Saleem and used to supply them at various places in Delhi-NCR and UP to members of crime syndicates, police said.

Saleem has been involved in illegal firearms manufacturing and trading for last 10 years, police said.

Before 2012-13, he was in contact of various illegal arm dealers of western UP, but was not involved in any kind of illegal activity. Gradually, he learnt how to manufacture illegal firearms and ammunition and started his own set up at his home, police said.

Thereafter, he started supplying such firearms locally and also got associated with one Mukeem Kala gang, they said.

In 2015, he was booked in four criminal cases, including a rioting case, registered at the Kandhla police station. In the riot case, he was involved in setting a police station on fire along with many others, police said.