With the arrest of two men, the Delhi Police on Tuesday claimed to have busted a gun-running racket involved in supplying illegal arms and ammunition to criminals in Delhi and its peripherals. Police said that they have also recovered 25 country-made pistols along with 50 cartridges from the possession of the duo.
The accused have been identified as Naresh Singh (55) and Mahender Kumar (39), both residents of district Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh (UP).
According to Sanjeev Kumar Yadav, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Special Cell, in view of recent riots in North-East Delhi, the Special Cell had launched a special drive against suppliers of illegal firearms and live cartridges.
"The surveillance transpired that illegal weapons are mainly pumped in Delhi and its peripherals from the areas of Khargaon, Dhar, Manawar and Burhanpur in Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Meerut, (UP). On March 16, specific inputs were received that Naresh and Mahender were apprehended from Indraprastha Park area were they had come to supply a huge consignment of illegal weapons to their contact," said the DCP.
"During the investigation, accused persons disclosed that they are part of larger illegal arms supply syndicate and disclosed that they used to supply illegal weapons and cartridges to various persons in Delhi and NCR areas after procuring it from their contacts based in MP and UP," said the DCP.
"On interrogation, Naresh disclosed that he used to procure illegal pistols from Manawar, MP in bulk while he used to procure illegal ammunition from Hapur. Mahendra told police that has been indulged in this illegal trade of supplying firearms for more than 6-7 years," said the DCP.
"The Special Cell has so far (since 2018) has busted several modules and have arrested many members of illegal arms and ammunition by seizing more than 700 sophisticated and semi-automatic weapons," the DCP added.