Gun shops diverting arms to gangs

NEW DELHI: After battling gunrunners from Munger in Bihar and Khargone in Madhya Pradesh, the special cell has a new challenge before it: a syndicate that diverts weapons and bullets from ordnance factories and authorized sales channels.

Police teams are now watching licensed arms stores diverting supplies to the illegal market, and sources say, they have found suspicious activity at two stores in Bahadurgarh, Haryana.

The operation is a continuation of action against gangs from Munger, west UP and Madhya Pradesh that supply loaded weapons to criminals. The cell has seized two sophisticated pistols and 900 cartridges of 7.65 mm made in ordnance factories.

Special commissioner S N Shrivastava has asked his teams to make a strategy to combat these modules that involve gun shops. Officers say the smuggling of arms into Delhi increased manifold in the past two years when the cell seized 4,500 cartridges and 500 guns, and arrested more than 50 smugglers. Police say street crime has increased due to the easy availability of firearms.

A study by special cell showed that pistols from Munger and MP are not the only ones being found on robbers and snatchers. Increasingly, they are found using guns made in ordnance factories.

"Special cell sources in the criminal dens of Bhind and Morena in MP, and Etah and Etawah in UP have revealed that apart from trading in Munger-made firearms, criminals have been diverting legitimate and factory-built firearms, which otherwise require a licence to own and carry, into the hands of criminals," DCP Sanjeev Yadav said.

The probe has revealed that the module involves licensed arms dealers and counterfeiters apart from criminals and peddlers who are extremely active in this trade as guns stolen from factories fetch a better price than guns made illegally. Buyers of these factory-made guns get discounts on bulk orders and can get them delivered anywhere in India.