Guns, ammunition seized, one minor held in Bihar’s Araria: Police

According to the people familiar with the matter, Mubarak is an ex-block president (minority cell) of the ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U)

Bihar police on Wednesday raided a house acting on a tip-off in Araria district and recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition and other incriminating objects, officials said.

(Representative photo)

Police said while the man managed to flee the scene, they apprehended a minor allegedly trying to escape with arms.

A team led by Forebesganj sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Khusroo Siraj raided the house of 43-year-old Mohammad Mubarak and recovered arms and ammunition, and other incriminating objects, including narcotics, foreign currencies and Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) from his house besides an SUV.

According to the people familiar with the matter, Mubarak is an ex-block president (minority cell) of the Janata Dal-United (JD-U).

The cache of arms and ammunition includes – one pistol, one musket, one country-made pistol, 12 live cartridges, several used cartridges and one magazine. Moreover, 3.45-gram brown sugar, Myanmar currency worth Rs.15,000, seven Aadhaar cards, six ATMs, three mobile phones, one bottle of IMFL, one Hyundai SUV car and two bikes, all three without registration number, were recovered, said police.

The Hyundai car seized had a JD-U party flag in it, police are probing whether he was actually associated with the party, said people mentioned above.

The police have booked Mubarak under 21/22 (C) NDPS Act, 25/26 Arms Act, Bihar Prohibition Excise Act, 3/13 Foreign Exchange Act and sections 406, 420, 478, 471, 413, 414 and 120 b of Indian Penal Code (IPC), Forbesganj station house officer (SHO) Mohammad Aftab Ahmad said.

Araria superintendent of police did not respond to the calls despite repeated attempts.

“We have seen the party flag in his seized car, but to my knowledge, he is not in the JD-U,” Araria district party president Ashish Kumar Patel said. He added, “We are trying to find out whether he was ever associated with the party.”

Meanwhile, a senior party who did not wish to be named told HT, “He (Mubarak) was the block-level president (minority cell) of the party, but now he is no longer even a primary member of the JD-U.”

“He was expelled from the party long ago in the wake of his anti-party activities,” added the party official.