The Haryana Police launched a crackdown on the supply of illegal firearms into the State. The State Police has shot a missive to the Uttar Pradesh Police to curb illegal firearms factories and rein in gangs of arms smugglers in their State.
“We have written a letter to the UP Police to take strict actions against illegal firearms units, which are running in their State and make them aware them about the smuggling of illegal firearms in Haryana,” Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) law & Orders, Muhammad Akil, said.
“During investigation of many cases, the Haryana Police came to know that recovered weapons from gangsters and other criminals belonged to Uttar Pradesh. So we had decided to take strict actions against these illegal activities in Haryana and also inform our adjoining States about the same,” the ADGP said.
“The weapons were mostly procured from Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Khurja, Farrukhabad, Modinagar, Etah, Aliganj, Rampur and Bulandshahr districts in Uttar Pradesh and also from some parts of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand,” the senior police official said.
“The cost of these illegal weapons is between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000 depending on the quality. For the trafficking, the gun-makers from Uttar Pradesh also appoint women for the task instead of males,” he said.
On June 22, the Gurugram police had arrested an accused named Sunil alias lala and recovered around 141 cartridges and one country-made pistol from his possession. The district police had registered around 54 cases related to the Arms Act in 2016 while around 72 cases have been recorded till July 8 this year. Apart from this, 63 cartridges were seized from criminals last year while this year the figure has already reached 236.
The Gurugram Police has also recovered 75 country-made pistols till June. Around 57 country-made pistols were recovered from the criminals a previous year. In another incident, Gurugram Police had busted a fake arms licence scam. The culprit in the case was Manish Bhardwaj alias Kala.
Police had recovered 50 firearms including foreign made ones and around 5,000 bullets. Seven imported rifles were also recovered from his possession.
The illegal weapons mostly play a major role in cases of car snatching at gun point. Dozens of such cases have been registered in Gurugram this year.