The Amritsar city police has unearthed a fake arms license racket and arrested two members of a gang involved in making fake licenses along with six fake license holders, said director general of police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav here on Wednesday.
The racket was running from Tarn Taran sewa kendra under district manager identified as Suraj Bhandari, who is absconding, he added.
Among those arrested are an employee of the sewa kendra identified as Harpal Singh and a photostat shop owner identified as Baljit Singh. Police teams have also recovered a laptop containing details of the various documents and online open source softwares used for tampering documents, he added.
The racket was brought to light following the arrest of Bablu alias Ballu of Anngarh on April 9, 2024, in an attempt to murder case. During interrogation he confessed to owning a fake licensed weapon, along with co-accused Kanwardeep Singh. Following these revelations investigations exposed that the license was verified from the deputy commissioner office, Tarn Taran but did not reflect in the official record.
Yadav, said that Police teams are probing the role of earmarked gun houses, with knowledge of license being fake, selling arms on those, without online verification. Further investigations are on, he added.
{{/usCountry}}Yadav, said that Police teams are probing the role of earmarked gun houses, with knowledge of license being fake, selling arms on those, without online verification. Further investigations are on, he added.
{{/usCountry}}Commissioner of police (CP) Amritsar Ranjit Singh Dhillon said that a first information report (FIR) was registered on June 11, 2024, and five more fake arms licensees identified as Abhay of Sultanwind, Manpreet of Amritsar, Kanwardeep of Amritsar and Rohit of Amritsar were arrested on June 12, 2024, while, Harinder, a resident of Sadar Tarn Taran was nabbed on July 2, 2024. He said the Police teams have also recovered six fake arms licenses and tampered aadhar cards, and seven weapons— including four .32 bore pistols, two .32 bore revolvers and one double barrel rifle— from their possession.
He said that the Suraj Bhandari was charging ₹1.5 Lakh per client to prepare the arms license, of which, ₹5k-10k commission was given Baljit Singh, while Harpal Singh was getting ₹10k-20k. Police teams are on manhunt to nab accused Suraj Bhandari.
A case FIR no. 101 dated 11/6/24 had been registered under sections 417, 420, 177, 465, 467, 469, 471, and 120B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Police Station Gate Hakima in Amritsar, said the officials.