Arrested persons smuggling weapons from MP to supply them in Punjab and other states: DGP
Punjab Police have busted an interstate illegal arms smuggling racket with the arrest of its four members after recovering nine .32 bore country-made pistols along with eight live cartridges from their possession.
Sharing details, the state Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav on Sunday said that those arrested have been identified as Gurmanjot Singh of Chakkar in Ludhiana; Kuldeep Singh alias Manak of Lehra village in Ludhiana; Sukhchain Singh of Moom village in Barnala; and Sandeep Singh of Bhaini Gujran village in Ludhiana.
Notably, Kuldeep Singh alias Manak and Gurmanjot Singh, who became known to each other while at Ludhiana jail in 2016, have a criminal background with many cases pertaining to attempt to murder, Arms Act, snatching, theft, etc registered against them and they were out on bail at present. Accused Gurmanjot was in contact with Madhya Pradesh-based illegal arms smugglers after he met them at Ludhiana Jail 2022.
DGP Yadav said that following reliable inputs about the movement of arms smugglers possessing consignment of illegal arms and ammunition brought by them from Sendhwan in Barwani district of Madhya Pradesh with the intention to carry out criminal activity in the State, Police teams from State Special Operating Cell (SSOC), SAS Nagar, laid a naka at Patran-Khanauri road in Patiala.
“Police teams have apprehended all the accused persons, who were travelling in their white Swift car (PB 10 GG 9014), and recovered nine pistols, bearing distinctive ‘Star’ mark from their possession,” he said, adding that Police have also impounded their car.
He said that preliminary inquiry revealed that some of the weapons were to be used by the arrested accused persons to execute some targeted organized crime, while, the remaining weapons were meant for distribution to the members of other gangs.
DGP Yadav said that all the accused persons were involved in supplying weapons to criminal gangs in Punjab as well as neighbouring states.
DIG Counter Intelligence J Elanchezian said that further investigations are on to trace the forward and backward linkages of this module, and identify the MP-based arm smugglers. More arrests and recoveries are expected, he added.
A case FIR, dated March 30, 2024, has been registered under sections 25 and 25(7) of the Arms Act and section 120B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Police Station SSOC in SAS Nagar.
