The five accused, who were arrested on Saturday by the Chittorgarh district police with pistols that looked like foreign-made pistols, have confessed that they had purchased the arms from a middleman, Chintu, who is a native of Nimbahera town in Chittorgarh district.
According to the police, Chintu operates the network of Surendra Dayma, a smuggler of Mandsaur district in Madhya Pradesh. The recovered pistols have ‘Made in UK’ and ‘Made in USA’ embossed on them, but were made in Dhar and Khargone districts of MP, they said.
Nimbahera deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Jagram Meena said that as a part of the special drive against illegal firearms, a special team was keeping eye on people involved in arms smuggling.
“During interrogation, the arrested accused had revealed name of Dayma who hails from Mandsaur. Chintu, who is a local, sold these arms. Each of the seven seized pistols was to be sold to customer at prices ranging between Rs 25,000 and Rs 30,000,” he said.
The sale proceeds were directly credited into the bank account of a gun-maker in Mandsaur and Chintu reportedly got between Rs 3,000 and Rs 5,000 from Dayma.
{{/usCountry}}The sale proceeds were directly credited into the bank account of a gun-maker in Mandsaur and Chintu reportedly got between Rs 3,000 and Rs 5,000 from Dayma.
{{/usCountry}}Police said Chintu was arrested by the Nimbahera police on Friday and two firearms were recovered from his possession.
During interrogation, he told name of the persons whom he had supplied the firearms, following which one pistol each was recovered from the house of Ramesh Singh, Nandu alias Nand Kishore Bagri, Devilal Prajapat and Vijay Singh in raids by police.
DSP Meena said that Prajapat had ordered the illegal firearm to take revenge from a person with whom he had a fight during his brother’s marriage on Monday.
Meanwhile, teams of Chittorgarh police are camping in Dhar, Mnadsaur and Khargone districts of MP to nab Dayma. Once he is arrested, a big network of illegal arms supply could be broken, believe the police officials.
The Rajasthan police are running a special drive against increasing use of illegal firearms in criminal incidents in the state. The police have registered 683 cases across the state under the Arms Act between January 1 and March 30.
During the period, 706 persons were arrested and 665 firearms were seized.
The circle officers and station house officers were directed for detailed investigation of the source of supply of illegal fire arms and ammunitions.
According to official data of the Rajasthan police, around 17,570 illegal arms with cartridges were seized between 2014 and 2016.
The state saw a rise in smuggling of arms in 2014, 2015 and 2016. In 2014, 5,232 cases of illegal weapons were registered, which rose to 5,894 in 2015 and went even higher in 2016 to 6,445.