Weapon smuggling racket busted, 2 held

Five .32 bore pistols and a .30 bore pistol, along with seven magazines, have been seized from them. They are said to have procured weapons on the directions of someone from the US. Two more members of the racket have been identified, says the DGP.

Busting an interstate weapon smuggling racket, counter intelligence sleuths have arrested two persons at a checkpoint near the Jalandhar cantonment railway station. Five .32 bore pistols and a .30 bore pistol, along with seven magazines, have been seized from their possession, the police said.

Pic only for representation purpose.

DGP Gaurav Yadav said those arrested had been identified as Harpreet Singh, alias Happy Mattu, of Rayya and Rahul Masih of Chawinda Devi village in Amritsar. The DGP said a preliminary investigation revealed that the racket had been working in a well-oiled manner and the accused had procured four large weapon consignments from Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh in the last six months.

“The module members were in touch with a USA-based criminal entity and procured weapon consignment on its directions,” Yadav said. According to him, the police have identified two more members of this module and nominated them for supplying weapons to gangsters.

“We are on a manhunt to nab them. Further investigations are ongoing to establish backward and forward linkages,” he said.

Sharing operation details, Jalandhar counter intelligence AIG Navjot Singh Mahal said that acting swiftly on intelligence-based inputs, police teams from the counter intelligence, in a joint operation with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), SAS Nagar, laid a special checkpoint near the Jalandhar cantonment railway station and arrested the accused.

A case has been registered under Sections 25 and 25 (8) of the Arms Act at the State Special Operations Cell (SSOC) police station, Amritsar.