After unearthing an illegal gun manufacturing unit in Choudwar in April this year, the city police on Tuesday busted a racket supplying illegal arms to anti-social elements in the city.
A special squad entrusted in the drive has arrested as many as 15 gunrunners and seized four sophisticated small arms, 24 rounds of bullets, five magazines, three daggers, seven cell phones and eight motorcycles from them.
Speaking to reporters here on Wednesday, the Twin City Police Commissioner RP Sharma informed that a special drive called ‘Operation Trishul’ was launched to keep at least three key suspects in this trade under surveillance.
“On Tuesday evening, basing on intelligence inputs, the squad accosted the trio on the Birupa barrage under the Jagatpur police station and arrested them while they were planning to commit an extortion,” Sharma said, adding that the remaining gunrunners were arrested and seizures were made on the basis of information provided by the trio during interrogation.
The Police Commissioner said the key accused have sold as many as eight illegal arms in the city recently and efforts are on to nab the gun purchasers and seize the arms. Sharma further disclosed that in view of the upcoming puja season, a drive would soon be launched to book the dreaded criminals under the stringent National Security Act (NSA).