In what could be termed as the first recovery of its kind in the national Capital, Delhi Police on Friday claimed to have recovered a sophisticated Kalashnikov gun (AK-47) from a gang of arms peddlers.
The recovery of an AK-47 assault rifle from the gang of three has sent alarm bells ringing in the security establishment. The assault rifle was recovered along with illegally procured 30 pistols and as many spare magazines. What has raised the eyebrows is that an AK-47 has been recovered for the first time and its quality is as good as the original one. Investigations are continuing as the investigators suspect there could be more such automatic weapons with the arms smugglers.
The AK-47 and all other weapons are made in Munger, Bihar and were allegedly smuggled by three men, identified as Shamim (46), Vijay Pal (320 and Taslim (36), all residents of Muzaffarnagar, UP. They were arrested by the Special Cell on Sunday from Bhagat Singh Park, Yamuna Vihar area here at about 5 pm following a tip-off, police said. An inhouse study into the growing use of sophisticated firearms over last few years revealed that in most of the cases illicit weapons manufactured in Munger, Bihar are being smuggled into Delhi. The Special Cell which had been working to prevent this illegal trade had recovered 196 illicit weapons last year and 35 gunrunners were arrested while this year 90 weapons have been seized and around 20 people have been arrested in this connection.
“This is for the first time since the Special Cell started the work on ‘Operation Munger’, an improvised AK-47 rifle has been recovered. The craftsmanship can be judged by the fact that the recovered weapon has been imitated exactly to that of original AK-47 assault rifle,” said Special Commissioner (Special Cell) SN Shrivastava. Along with the AK-47 and its magazine, 30 semi-automatic pistols along with 30 spare magazines have been recovered from the accused persons. Some of the recovered pistols are engraved with ‘Made in Italy’ mark and the rest with ‘Made in USA’. A white Tata Indigo used for the transportation of the weapons has also been recovered.
Another disturbing trend which has emerged during the interrogation of those arrested in this case is that given the ‘hurdles’ in smuggling the weapons from Munger to Delhi and NCR, the kingpin of this trade are working to set up a ‘Mini Munger’ here by bringing the ‘craftsmen’ to the national Capital and manufacturing the weapons here, said Shrivastava while adding that police is probing this angle as well. The accused have also told police that an AK-47 is made only on demand and the one recovered from them was meant for a high profile gangster of Western Uttar Pradesh. “They had procured the AK 47 at around Rs 2.5 lakh which was to be sold at Rs 2.8 to Rs 3 lakh,” said an official privy to the investigation.