Delhi: Two arms smugglers arrested with more than 1,300 live bullets

The combined seizure of 1,310 bullets is the biggest haul of ammunitions seized in a single operation this year

Delhi Police Special Cell on Saturday arrested two alleged arms suppliers and seized over 1,300 live cartridges from them, the biggest ammunition seizure in 2017.

Unlike firearms, which can be made in illegal factories, bullets are only manufactured in government-owned ordinance factories. (Sourced)

Police said the pilferage of government-manufactured bullets was traced to an arms shop in Aligarh whose owner allegedly rigged the registers to show illegal sales as legitimate.

The arrested men were identified as Mahipal and Sanjdeep Yadav. Sandeep’s brother Sanjeev is the owner of ‘Yadav Gun Shop’ in Aligarh from where the bullets — used in 315 and .32 bore firearms — were allegedly smuggled out of. Sanjeev has been asked to join the investigation as officials are probing his role in other cases as well.

DCP Special Cell P S Kushwah said they received information about large quantity of ammunitions being smuggled into Delhi for a prominent gangster and several other clients.

“Mahipal was arrested on Thursday when he came to deliver a consignment near Wazirabad. On checking, we found that he was carrying 360 live cartridges. He told us that his task was to supply the cartridges to gangsters in Delhi and western Uttar Pradesh after sourcing it from one Sandeep,” said Kushwah.

Based on information from Mahipal, Sandeep was arrested from Aligarh on Friday with 950 live cartridges.

“The combined seizure of 1,310 bullets is the biggest haul of bullets seized by Delhi Police in a single operation this year. Unlike past cases, where multiplicity of involved channels prevented us from knowing from which shop the cartridges were smuggled out of, this time we have zeroed in on a single shop,” said Kushwah.

Unlike firearms, which are manufactured in illegal factories across Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, bullets are only manufactured in government-owned ordinance factories in different parts of the country. The supply to licensed shops such as Yadav Gun Shop is rationed by the government and bullets are issued according to a client register the shopkeepers maintain.

“Since the process is manual, it is easy to manipulate records and sell these bullets to criminals. Normally priced between ₹150 to ₹200, these bullets go for five times as much in the black market,” said another officer.