Delhi Police busts interstate arms trafficking syndicates, 3 held

New Delhi: Delhi Police on Monday said it had arrested three active members of two interstate firearm syndicates and recovered several weapons from their possession.

Addressing a press conference on Monday, Deputy Commissioner of Police Pramod Kushwaha said two of the arrested persons hail from Madhya Pradesh while the third is a native of Rajasthan. "Two interstate gangs were busted and 22 pistols and five magazines were recovered from them. Three accused persons were arrested in connection with this case. Two of them hail from MP and the other arrested person is from Rajasthan," the DCP said, adding that the sources from whom the accused persons received the seized weapons have been identified and are being tracked.

He said the weapons were sourced from MP and then supplied to Delhi NCR, Haryana, Rajasthan and western Uttar Pradesh.
The accused persons -- identified as Manmohan Chorasia (32), Jaiprakash Pandey (23), and Rajasthan-based Abhishek Singh (22) -- were arrested on Sunday and two FIRs have been registered against them. They booked under Section 25 (8) of the Arms (Amendment) Act, 2019, police said.
According to an official statement, the Delhi Police recovered 15 semi-automatic pistols with five spare magazines (a total of 20 magazines) and seven single-shot pistols.

It added that the three persons were involved in trafficking of weapons for more than five years.
"(The) Accused persons have disclosed that they used to procure a semi-automatic pistol for Rs 8,000 and a single-shot pistol for Rs 3,000 from MP and would further sell these firearms for Rs 25,000 and Rs 6,000 per piece respectively to criminals in Delhi NCR and other states. Interrogation of the arrested persons has been revealed that they have already supplied more than 600 firearms in Delhi NCR over the last 5 years," the police statement read.

The three accused were produced in court which remanded them in police custody.
Further interrogation is underway. (ANI)