Over 2,311 kilos of firecrackers seized across Delhi districts ahead of Diwali

Delhi Police have arrested six people in four different operations and seized over 2000kg of banned firecrackers in the national capital ahead of Diwali, officers said on Tuesday.

Delhi Police have arrested six people in four different operations and seized over 2000kg of banned firecrackers in the national capital ahead of Diwali, officers said on Tuesday.

Indian customers visit a firecracker shop in New Delhi on October 23, 2018. - India's top court on October 23 eased a ban on fireworks for a major Hindu festival despite air pollution in New Delhi and other cities again reaching danger levels. (Photo by Money SHARMA / AFP) (AFP)

The first operation took place in south Delhi’s Madangir area on Monday afternoon. Deputy commissioner of police (South) Chandan Chowdhary said a police patrol saw a man carrying a plastic bag near Madangir’s Central Market on Monday afternoon and checked his bag, to find banned crackers in it. Later, 1,193kg crackers were recovered from his shop in Madangir, the DCP said.

The man was identified as Sanjay Kumar, 53, a resident of Madangir. A case was registered under relevant sections and the man was arrested

In a related operation, the narcotics squad of the south district conducted a raid at a shop in Central Market in Madangir and arrested a person identified as Sagar, 27, who was found to be selling banned fire crackers. At his instance, 283kg banned fire crackers were recovered, police said.

In the third operation, northeast district police said that they got a tip-off on Monday regarding the transport of firecrackers in a tempo in the Welcome area. The tempo was spotted near a gym and the driver was nabbed. The vehicle was found full of 13 cartoons containing a total of 611kg fire crackers, DCP (northeast) Sanjay Kumar Sain said.

Police said that the accused was identified as Kapil, 27, a resident of Burari, and during interrogation, he disclosed that he used to buy firecrackers from different states through parcel services and deliver them to different shops in Delhi-NCR.

In the fourth operation, DCP (Dwarka) Harsha Vardhan said police got information regarding the sale of illegal firecrackers at three shops in Uttam Nagar and Rawta Mor. Raids were conducted at the locations from where three owners of the shops identified as Shanky, 33, Suresh Tareja, 59, and Rakesh Kumar, 40, were found present and 224.3kg of illegal firecrackers were recovered.

Delhi Police have seized at least 8,252 kilograms of banned fire crackers so far, the data showed.