Four more arrested in connection with fake arms licence racket

Ghaziabad:

Ghaziabad:

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The Ghaziabad police on Saturday arrested four more persons in connection with the fake arms licence racket, taking the total number of arrests to nine.

The four men arrested on Saturday made fake licences with the help of the five prime suspects earlier arrested on August 13 and procured arms by showing the duplicate papers.

Narendra Singh, Deepak Garg, Pintu Singh and Pawan Garg, all from Vijay Nagar, were arrested from Lal Kuan on Saturday when they were trying to flee the city, police said.

“The four persons are part of the gang, whose members were arrested earlier. The four men procured fake arms licences with the help of the prime suspects from Shahjahanpur district and later purchased arms. The fake licences and arms, including four pistols, were seized,” Atish Kumar Singh, circle officer (city – 2), said.

On August 13, Ghaziabad police arrested five persons from Shahjahanpur, including Hari Shanker Awasthi, a gun house owner, who allegedly got fake arms licences made with the help of two contractual staff, who are absconding.

“We suspect that another 15-17 more persons are likely to be arrested in connection with the racket. The district magistrate has already written to the state home department to conduct an inquiry as it is suspected the gang may have got prepared more fake licences for different people across the state,” Singh, added.

Taking undue advantage of a missing arms register from the Sehramau (North) police station in 2007, Awasthi, in connivance with the two contractual staff and others, got fake arms licences issued and obtained fake UID numbers.

The racket came to light after one person applied for a transfer of his arms’ licence from Shahjahanpur to Ghaziabad. The officials got suspicious as the UID did not match with the number in the official records. An inquiry revealed the entire plot.