STF busts illegal firearms unit in Ghaziabad; 4 held

The unit was making copies of semi-automatic firearms like .30 bore pistol, which originally costs over ₹4 lakh, and made them available to criminals for ₹1 lakh, say officials

LUCKNOW A Ghaziabad-based machine parts manufacturing unit was operational as a centre for making copies of semi-automatic firearms like .30 bore pistol, which originally cost over ₹4 lakh, and made them available to criminals for only ₹1 lakh, said police officials on Thursday.

A senior STF official informed that the arrested people were manufacturing these firearms on demand, and they had supplied over 80 similar firearms in the past few years. (Pic for representation)

The UP Special Task Force (STF) on Wednesday unearthed this illegal firearms manufacturing unit after the arrest of four people from Morta factory area of Ghaziabad. These firearms were manufactured through computerised machines and their firing capacity was equivalent to that of the originals, officials were quoted in a press note.

Those arrested were identified as Shah Fahad Ahmad, Sadiq and Javed, all residents of Ghaziabad and one Shivam Singh of Meerut. A fully prepared .30 bore pistol,.32 bore pistol and 12 semi-prepared .30 bore pistols, live cartridges and bullet shells of .30 bore were recovered from their possession, said STF officials.

A senior STF official informed that the arrested people were manufacturing these firearms on demand, and they had supplied over 80 similar firearms in the past few years. The four had supplied these pistols to criminals and gangs of Meerut, Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad and other western UP districts.

He said one Bablu of Dasna, Ghaziabad had recently placed order for two .30 bore pistols, following which the accused were manufacturing the firearms.

Officials said the accused sold pistols of different bores at ₹1 lakh and .315 bore firearm ‘katta’ (countrymade single-shot weapon) at ₹4,000. Besides supplying over 80 pistols, the gang supplied hundreds of kattas to criminal gangs, he added.

The kingpin of the gang was Shah Fahad, whose father also used to make firearms, and had hired three other persons for it. He said Fahad paid ₹18,000 per month to Shivam, ₹8,000 to Sadiq while Javed was paid ₹15,000 per manufactured firearm by him.

Computerised machines worth lakhs meant to prepare different machine parts were used for firearms manufacturing. Shah Fahad used to get some computerised commands for the machines in a pen drive, which was used to first prepare different parts of semi-automatic pistols to be assembled later by them.

When asked about cartridges and bullet shells recovered from the factory, the accused revealed that these were meant for taking measurement of firearms’ bore while preparing them.