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 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 Muzaffarnagar Jail of Uttar Pradesh in connection with various criminal cases, officials said.