E-Paper
Gun houses robbed, admn hears no bang
THE WORST fears of the owners of Meena Gun House on La Touche Road came true when they found at least 44 guns and 513 12-bore cartridges missing from their shop on Tuesday. That rioters in the Friday?s communal flare had plundered their shop was something which firearms shop owners always suspected but had not been able to confirm thanks to indifferent attitude of the administration authorities.
THE WORST fears of the owners of Meena Gun House on La Touche Road came true when they found at least 44 guns and 513 12-bore cartridges missing from their shop on Tuesday. That rioters in the Friday’s communal flare had plundered their shop was something which firearms shop owners always suspected but had not been able to confirm thanks to indifferent attitude of the administration authorities.
One would have expected that the theft of such a huge cache of arms and ammunition would have set alarm bells ringing for authorities but police and administration officials continued to remain as nonchalant as ever. The stolen firearms include 39 double and single barrel guns and five rifles, out of which three rifles and 10 other weapons were recovered from a nearby ‘nullah.’ The rioters also made an abortive bid to break open another gun shop, Ilahi Bux and Company, located just opposite the Meena Gun House. The owner of the gun shop Mohd Ali, a resident of house number 411/49, 41, Hata Abdul Aziz Road, has lodged an FIR in this connection.
“Majority of the stolen weapons belong to license holders, who had deposited their firearms with the gun shop owner for safe-keeping,” said city magistrate Indra Vikram Singh. He said, ACM (II) Rahul Singh had checked the entire stock of 175 firearms that were kept in the shop and efforts were being made to trace the stolen weapons. While both police and administration officials are confident, they would ultimately recover the entire stolen cache of firearms, they are not so sure of getting back the of 12 bore cartridges, which they said would be difficult to trace as they contain no tell tale markings. The incident is also being looked upon as a fallout of the ongoing civil dispute between the owners of the gun shop with their landlord, who reportedly hails from the Sonkar community.
