Delhi Police busts interstate gunrunning racket, recovers 18 firearms; 'kingpin' among eight held
Eight suspects linked with an interstate arms smuggling syndicate, including the alleged kingpin, have been arrested and 18 illegal firearms, additional magazines and live cartridges have been seized following an extensive operation by Delhi Police's Special Cell, an official said on August 4.
The accused were allegedly part of a network that procured sophisticated semi-automatic pistols and country-made firearms from Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh and supplied them to criminals in Delhi-NCR and adjoining areas, police said.
"The syndicate used encrypted social media applications, virtual numbers and fake online identities to coordinate with suppliers, traffickers and buyers while concealing identities of its members," a senior police officer said.
The arrestees have been identified as Harish Chandra (24), Pritpal Singh (24), Shishpal Singh alias Yash Chaudhary (26), Kuldeep Sagar (20), Agesh Kumar (25), Noor Mohammed alias Taslim (36), Mohammed Shan (19) and Vikram Singh (36).
Police said the operation was carried out on the basis of specific intelligence developed over several weeks regarding movement of illegal firearms into Delhi-NCR.
"During the operation, the team recovered 12 semi-automatic pistols, five country-made pistols, one revolver, 10 additional magazines, five live 9 mm prohibited cartridges, besides one live cartridge and an iron sickle from one of the accused," the officer said.
He further said the investigation began on July 5 when Harish Chandra was apprehended with eight semi-automatic pistols and eight magazines allegedly smuggled from Madhya Pradesh.
During interrogation, he disclosed that he and his brother were transporting illegal firearms at the direction of the syndicate's alleged kingpin Shishpal Singh, police said.
Based on his disclosure, police arrested Pritpal Singh and later tracked down Shishpal from Ballabhgarh in Haryana, recovering another illegal pistol from his rented accommodation.
According to police, Shishpal had been involved in illegal arms trade for nearly three years and had established a network of suppliers, couriers and traffickers operating across multiple states.
Subsequent raids led to the arrest of Kuldeep Sagar and Agesh Kumar, while further searches resulted in the recovery of another pistol from the residence of an absconding accused identified as Ganesh alias Lucky.
On July 14, Noor Mohammed alias Taslim and Mohammed Shan were arrested and four country-made pistols, one semi-automatic pistol and one revolver were recovered from them. A day later, Vikram Singh was arrested and five live 9 mm cartridges were seized from his residence.
Police said the syndicate allegedly procured sophisticated pistols from Madhya Pradesh and country-made firearms from Uttar Pradesh's Aligarh before transporting and storing them at multiple locations in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi-NCR for distribution.
Noor Mohammed was previously involved in 12 criminal cases, while Mohammed Shan had been arrested earlier in six cases, they added. (With inputs from PTI)
