With the arrest of two criminals, the Delhi Police on Tuesday claimed to have busted illegal arms syndicate operating in Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Madhya Pradesh. Police said they have also  recovered 22 country-made pistols, along with 10 cartridges, from the possession of the duo.

The accused have been identified as Tushar Bhardwaj (35), a resident of Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Devendra Singh Jadon (46), a resident of district Bhind in MP. Police said that the accused Tushar is previously found involved 16 cases of murder, robbery, arms act and theft while accused Devender is found involved in three cases of arms act.

According to Pramod Singh Kushwaha, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Special Cell, on February 13, specific inputs were received that Tushar would come in the evening along with his associate Devender at Sun Dial Park, near Barapulla flyover, Ring Road, New Delhi to deliver illicit weapons to his arms receivers in Delhi.

"Acting on the specific inputs a trap was laid and duo was spotted by the police team. They were asked to surrender but duo whipped out weapons to escape but were overpowered by the police team," said the DCP adding that on checking 22 pistols along with cartridges were recovered from the possession of the duo.

"Tushar and Devender came in contact with each other while they were in prison at Gwalior Central jail in 2016. Tushar learnt the illegal business of illicit arms trafficking from Devender and after release from jail, both started trafficking illicit arms and ammunition," said the DCP.

"Tushar used to procure weapons from Sendhwa (MP) and cartridges from one ammunition supplier of Seona, Bhind (MP) and then further sold it to different receivers of in UP, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi. The duo has supplied over 550 weapons to criminals of MP, UP, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi," said the DCP.

"The gang used to receive weapons of 0.32 bore calibres for Rs 8-12 thousand per piece depending upon the quality and used to sell in Delhi- NCR for Rs 20-25 thousands per piece. The cartridges of .32 bore and .315 bore and were sold at margin of Rs 200 to Rs 400 per cartridge," said the DCP adding that further investigation is on to identify all the forward and backward linkages of this arms and ammunition network.