Arms smuggled out of Ordinance factory reached Maoists and other banned outfits in India, Nepal: Police

The Special Task Force of Kolkata Police has busted an arms-ammunition racket that was instrumental in supplying arms to the Maoists in India and the banned outfits in Nepal. Following an investigation into the cross-border arms-cartel, it is revealed that the arms were allegedly smuggled out from the Rifle Factory Ishapore in West Bengal, an unit of Indian Ordnance Factories under the Ministry of Defence.

Acting on a tip off, the special team of Kolkata Police picked up four persons, two from Bihar and two from Bengal. The accused persons were identified as Ajoy Pandey and Jayashankar Pandey from Bihar and Kartick Sau and Umesh Roy from North 24 paragana district in Bengal. Seven revolvers, a carbine and ten rounds of ammunition were recovered from their possession. The consignment of arms was seized from Babughat bus terminus in central Kolkata, said sources.

During the course of investigation, the racketeers are said to have admitted that they used to receive the arms consignments from a group of employees in the ordnance factory. The arms too have the mark of the ordnance factory, added sources. Based on the information, two employees of the factory--Sushanta Basu and Sukhda Murmu were picked up from their residence in north 24 Paragana, said a senior official of STF.