NIA arrest arms syndicate member in AK47 stealing and trade case

22 AK-47 assault rifles and more than 500 spare parts stolen from the ordnance depot was earlier recovered in this case.

Sleuths of National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested an alleged arms trafficker from Bihar’s Gaya district in connection with the theft of weapon parts from Madhya Pradesh’s Central Ordnance Depot (COD).

The deadly AK-47 assault rifles were being stolen and illegally sold to Maoists and other criminal syndicates by a gang.(AP Photo/Representational use)

NIA official said that one Rajeev Ranjan Singh alias Chunnu Singh, a mukhiya of Tetar Panchayat was arrested from his residence situated at Atri block in Gaya. The NIA has already arrested and charge-sheeted 13 accused in the case.

The case pertains to the recovery of three AK series weapons in Munger from the house of an accused, Rizwana Begum. The case was originally registered at Muffasil police station on September 7, 2018. This case was later taken up and re-registered by the NIA for investigation.

The Munger police under the leadership of the then SP, Babu Ram, had busted the racket and registered a case against 26 accused and some unknown persons before the case was taken over by the NIA for further investigation.

In fact, Ram and his team had recovered 22 AK-47 assault rifles and more than 500 spare parts stolen from the COD.

During the investigation NIA found that Singh was involved in the illegal arms dealing syndicate. It also unearthed incriminating evidence against Singh, a habitual arms trafficker and one of the main conduits for supply of weapons in this case.

Prohibited AK series weapons were stolen and smuggled from the sheds of Central Ordnance Depot in Jabalpur by serving and retired personnel of the depot and sold to arms traffickers in Munger, which were eventually sold to various Maoists organisations and criminal syndicates. More than 76 AK series rifles, their parts and 13 self-loading rifles (SLRs) were stolen from the sheds of the ordnance depot between 2012 and 2018.

The kingpin of the racket, Purshottam Lal Rajak, used the parts of the stolen weapons to make cannibalised AK series rifles and SLRs before selling them to weapon-dealers in Munger.