New Delhi
Twenty-six pistols hidden below thick layers of ghee in plastic cans have been recovered from a car and two arms dealers have been arrested from east Delhi’s Ghazipur Road, the police said on Thursday.
The two arrested men, Jitender, and his brother-in-law Raj Bahadur, were allegedly smuggling the weapons from Madhya Pradesh and selling them to criminals in Delhi-NCR, said Pramod Singh Kushwah, deputy commissioner of police (special cell).
“They would purchase the .32 bore pistols for R8,000-12,000 and sell them in Delhi-NCR for R25,000-30,000,” said the DCP.
DCP Kushwah said that Jitender would earlier act as a middleman in arms deals in Madhya Pradesh, but decided to start supplying the weapons to criminals in Delhi because of the high profit margin here.
The officer said the police had been trailing Jitender’s activities for some time and the breakthrough came on Monday in the form of a tip-off that he and his brother-in-law were carrying guns in a Mahindra Bolero car.
“We intercepted the car on the Ghazipur Road, but the suspects sped away. They were soon apprehended by our other team that had put up barricades some distance ahead on the road,” the DCP said.
{{/usCountry}}“We intercepted the car on the Ghazipur Road, but the suspects sped away. They were soon apprehended by our other team that had put up barricades some distance ahead on the road,” the DCP said.
{{/usCountry}}On checking the car, the police allegedly found two large plastic cans containing ghee. “We checked the cans to find pistols packed in polythene covers lying under a thick layer of the ghee,” said the DCP.
The arrests and recoveries were made around the same time that the Delhi Police’s crime branch recovered a carbine and 40 semi-automatic pistols from two other suspects.