E-Paper
Criminal arrested with AK-47, 1300 cartridges in Shamli
Shamli SP Sukirti Madhav said the arrested criminal was being interrogated to know how a weapon like AK-47 was smuggled and from where
The Shamli police have arrested one Anil (goes by one name only), on Tuesday, at Thanabhawan area of district Shamli and recovered an AK-47 rifle along with 1300 rounds of cartridges which the accused bought for ₹11 lakh. According to the police, the arrested criminal is a member of Anil Banji’s gang.
Besides, an AK-47 rifle, police recovered 700 cartridges of 7.62 mm used in AK-47, 600 cartridges of 4.55mm, four magazines, an SUV and a mobile phone from the possession of the arrested criminal.
Shamli SP Sukirti Madhav said that the arrested criminal is being interrogated to know how a weapon like AK-47 was smuggled and from where.
“We would take a few criminals, who are already in jail, on remand to collect information about the network of those involved in supplying and procuring such deadly weapons.”
Madhav said that Thanabhawan Police of the district arrested Anil while he was trying to take the weapon to some safe hideout outside UP. “The team intercepted the vehicle after receiving a definite intelligence input and arrested Anil with weapon and cartridges on Tuesday,” said Madhav.
During interrogation, Anil revealed that he is a resident of the Bhaurakakan area in Muzaffarnagar and Anil Banji of Susauli is his childhood friend. Banji returned to his village after retirement from the Air force in 2009, and both friends started their criminal activities.
Both the friends are also prime suspects in the killing of a close associate of a hard-core criminal Dharmendra Kirthal. Anil Banji then approached another dreaded criminal, Sanjeev Jeeva, and procured an AK-47 for his protection. Banji wanted to use the AK-47 to eliminate the dean of Agriculture University of Meerut, Rajbeer Singh. But he changed his strategy last minute and used other weapons, but the dean survived the attack even after being hit by multiple bullets. The incident happened in the middle of March last month.
Anil Banji and his associate were arrested for attacking the dean and are presently in jail. In Banji’s absence, Anil was given the responsibility to hide the AK-47 and cartridges in a safe hideout outside UP.
