550 bullets recovered from arms smugglers in Delhi

The arrested men were identified as Akhilesh Kumar,40, from Etah in Uttar Pradesh and Kunwar Pal, a 29-year-old resident of Mainpuri of the same state.

The Delhi Police on Friday said they had seized 550 illegally procured cartridges from two suspected inter-state ammunition traffickers who were arrested from east Delhi’s Kalyanpuri. The two had come near Lal Bahadur Shastri (LBS) hospital to deliver the ammunition to their clients when a special cell team caught them, the police said.

Police said that further efforts helped them learn that one Akhilesh Kumar is currently involved in large scale illegal ammunition trafficking to criminals in Delhi-NCR. (HT Photo)

The arrested men were identified as Akhilesh Kumar,40, from Etah in Uttar Pradesh and Kunwar Pal, a 29-year-old resident of Mainpuri of the same state. The arrested persons confessed to have supplied more than 2,500 illegally procured cartridges to criminal in Delhi-NCR and Western Uttar Pradesh in the past eight months, said deputy commissioner of police (special cell) Pramod Singh Kushwah.

“The arrested men used to procure one cartridge for R 250. They were selling the same cartridge to a criminal at a price ranging between R 450 and R 800. We are interrogating the duo to ascertain the exact sources through which they procured cartridges,” Kushwah said.

DCP Kushwah said that investigation of many reported heinous crimes revealed that criminals in Delhi-NCR are using sophisticated illegal firearms that are frequently being supplied to them by illegal guns traffickers of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. The city police carried out many drives and arrested many such traffickers with illegal firearms.

Police said that further efforts helped them learn that one Akhilesh Kumar is currently involved in large scale illegal ammunition trafficking to criminals in Delhi-NCR. On June 19, the special cell team received information that Kumar and his associate would come near LBS Hospital to deliver a big consignment of ammunition.

“Accordingly, a trap was laid and Kumar was caught with Kunwar Pal. The bag that Kumar carried contained 375 cartridges while Pal’s bag had 175 bullets,” Kushwah said.