Illegal arms factory busted in Delhi; pistols, cartridges, machinery seized

Police said the accused, Iqbal Khan, is proficient in manufacturing carbines and semi-automatic pistols. He was running an illegal firearms manufacturing and assembling unit in east Delhi.

The Delhi Police on Monday said it has unearthed an illegal firearms manufacturing and assembling unit, that was allegedly being run by a 41-year-old arms dealer from his two-storey rented house in east Delhi’s Shakti Vihar near Karawal Nagar.

Delhi Crime Branch officers with the arms and ammunitions recovered from the illegal arms factory in Karawal Nagar, at Delhi Police Headquarters, in New Delhi, on Monday, December 3, 2018. (Sonu Mehta/HT PHOTO)

A semi-automatic carbine, five pistols, six spare magazines and 16 cartridges, were seized along with raw materials and machinery used in manufacturing firearms.

Police said the accused, Iqbal Khan, is proficient in manufacturing carbines and semi-automatic pistols. They said Iqbal, a native of Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh, supplied carbines and other guns to several criminal gangs in Delhi-NCR and Uttar Pradesh. Police said Iqbal’s father, late Bundu Khan, ran a similar factory at their native village and he was known as “Bandook Khan”.

One of the receivers of Iqbal’s illegally manufactured firearms, Raj Kartik, a former associate of south Delhi’s jailed gangster Shakti Sharda, was also arrested.

Sharda and his accomplices were involved in the 2014 Moolchand robbery case wherein ₹8 crore was looted at gunpoint from the occupants of a Honda City car.

Deputy commissioner of police (crime) G Ram Gopal Naik said it is for the first time that the Delhi Police has busted an illegal arms unit in the national capital.

DCP Naik said Iqbal was arrested on November 27, following a tip-off that he would come near Ramprastha Crossing bus stop near Anand Vihar railway station to deliver a consignment of firearms.

“Our team caught Iqbal with a carbine, one semi-automatic pistol and four cartridges. His interrogation led to the arrest of Kartik from Chirag Dilli with a countrymade pistol and three bullets on December 1. Kartik had purchased the pistol from Iqbal for ₹40,000,” Naik said.

Iqbal used to sell semi-automatic carbines for ₹1 lakh to Rs1.5 Lakh, semi-automatic pistols for ₹30,000-40,000 and countrymade pistols for ₹5,000 each, the DCP said.

DCP Naik said Iqbal was arrested with firearms in 2014 from Karawal Nagar but he never disclosed to the police the details of his factory.

“Iqbal had sold a carbine and two pistols to Dheeraj and Neeraj, who were members of Yogesh Bhadoda gang of western UP and were killed in a police encounter in Meerut around nine months ago. A gangster from Meerut, Furkan, who was gunned down by the UP Police 10 months ago had also purchased a carbine from Iqbal,” Naik said.