Issuing of arms’ licences indefinitely suspended in Ludhiana

Police has received a complaint that some city residents were allegedly acquiring the licences on flimsy grounds and were submitting fake documents for the process.

Issuing of weapons’ licences has been indefinitely suspended in Ludhiana following complaints of irregularities in the process.

The district has currently has 16,500 licence-holders, having a total of 22, 000 weapons. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

As per information, a local right-wing leader, Varun Mehta, had lodged a complaint with the Punjab director general of police, alleging that some city residents were acquiring the licences on flimsy grounds and were submitting fake documents for the process.

Following this, police commissioner Rakesh Agrawal put brakes on the issuing of licences and also formed a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the complaint.

The district has currently has 16,500 licence-holders, having a total of 22, 000 weapons. As many as 500 applications are currently pending with the police department.

The SIT, comprising joint commissioner of police (JCP) J Elanchezhian, deputy commissioner of police (DCP, law and order) Ashwani Kapoor and ACP, Licensing Branch, Ranjit Singh, will review the licenses issued in the last three years and also probe the grounds on which these were issued.

As per sources, as many as 200 licenses were issued during this period, and many were on the recommendation of politicians. It is learnt that in a few cases, lower-rung police officers were also found involved in the issuing of the licenses.

Police commissioner Rakesh Agrawal said, “The weapons’ licence of those, who have not cited any valid reason, will be cancelled while an FIR will be registered against those whose documents are found to be forged.”