Ammunition trafficking: NIA searches 22 sites in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana
In Uttar Pradesh, NIA carries out raids on 15 establishments linked to an alleged arms trafficker-cum-businessman in Auraiya and Kanpur Dehat districts
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) carried out coordinated searches on 22 locations across Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Haryana post midnight and early Thursday as part of a high-profile investigation into alleged illegal ammunition trafficking from Uttar Pradesh to different parts of Bihar, senior officials said on Thursday.
Twenty-two teams of NIA conducted simultaneous searches at seven locations in Nalanda, Sheikhpura and Patna districts of Bihar, 13 locations in Auraiya district of Uttar Pradesh, and two locations in Kurukshetra district of Haryana, the agency confirmed.
The teams seized a large quantity of arms and ammunition of different bores, over ₹1 crore cash, several digital and electronic devices containing incriminating data, documents including fake and suspicious identity papers, during the searches, the NIA added.
Following the searches, NIA arrested Shashi Prakash from Patna, Ravi Ranjan Singh from Sheikhpura and Vijay Kalra and Kush Kalra from Kurukshetra for their active involvement in the larger syndicate engaged in the trafficking, sale and purchase of illegal ammunition, the agency said. The ammunition was being smuggled from Haryana to Uttar Pradesh, and further delivered to Bihar and other parts of the country as part of the conspiracy, as per NIA investigations in the case.
In Uttar Pradesh, NIA carried out raids on 13 establishments linked to an alleged arms trafficker-cum-businessman in Auraiya. The action began at 4 am even as the businessman remained untraceable. Officials suspected that he left Auraiya two days before the raids, accompanied by a close associate.
“Among the sites targeted were several addresses linked to a firearms-supplier known locally as “Sarafa,” based in Auraiya district. NIA teams — supported by police and backed by around 20 vehicles — raided multiple premises: including a petrol pump, houses, and a “gun-house” and shops in the local Sarafa (jewellery) market,” a senior police official said.
The current action is understood to be linked to the Kaimur cartridge recovery case of June 22, 2025, when Bihar Police seized 3,700 live cartridges from a vehicle travelling from Kanpur to Nalanda.
“This highlighted a larger trafficking route,” the senior police official said.
At that time, two men were arrested. One of them was a long-time employee in the alleged arms trafficker’s operations. He is suspected to have provided key information during interrogation, prompting Thursday’s multi-district raids.
Kaimur superintendent of police Harimohan Shukla, in a press conference, had confirmed the recovery and arrests.
The businessman’s family, originally from Gwalior, reportedly established arms-supply networks in the 1980s, dealing with dacoit groups across Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
Since then, he built a sprawling business portfolio — jewellery shops, electronics outlets, travel services, and petrol pumps. Agencies maintain that these commercial ventures may have been used to conceal the movement of illegal weaponry.
His gun shop licence in Shimla was cancelled years ago after it emerged that the establishment had been used to channel weapons to criminal and Naxalite groups. In 2010, an STF team reported intercepting his operatives transporting sophisticated weapons intended for insurgent networks in Bihar and West Bengal, according to people familiar with the details.
Officials also claimed that the Auraiya businessman and his father came under scrutiny after weapons from the Purulia armsdrop of 1995 were traced to Madhya Pradesh. At least four dealers named the father as having procured some of these weapons. Madhya Pradesh police subsequently arrested the father. He died by suicide in 1999, according to people familiar with the details.
“In his dying declaration, he owned up to all the wrongdoing, giving a breather to his son,” a former police officer said.
