Illegal arms racket: 2 arrested, weapons seized in UP

LUCKNOW: Two persons, including an arms dealer, of an inter-state gang were today arrested by the UP Special Task Force and a cache of weapons and ammunition seized from them, police said.

Manbeer Singh Bahara, who owns four arms shops in Himachal Pradesh, and Ram Pratap Bhadauriya alias Rajan were arrested from Mohanlalganj area this morning, while one of their associate managed to flee from the spot, they said.

Four .30 bore factory-made Springfield rifles, around 1,500 cartridges of different bores, one bolt of a rifle, four mobile phones and 15 ATM cards were seized from their possession, they said.

Information about supply of arms and ammunition in huge quantity to anti-social elements in West Bengal were being received for the last few days.

"Specific information was received that Manbeer, Rajan along with their aide Vivek Varma alias Kamal were on their way to West Bengal to deliver a consignment of arms and ammunition and will pass through Lucknow," they said.

A STF team arrested Manbeer and Rajan when they walked into a trap, while Vivek managed to flee from the spot.

During interrogation, Rajan revealed that for the last two year he along with Vivek were supplying arms and ammunition to Dada and Raghu in West Bengal and had delivered nearly 30 consignments so far.

He told the sleuths that the cache were procured from Shan gun house in Gwalior, which is owned by Ashok Agawal and from Manbeer Singh in Shimla.

Manbeer, too, revealed that he along with Agawal used to supply arms and ammunition to Vivek and Rajan by forging documents.

Acting on the revelations made by the two accused, the STF personnel raided Vivek's house in Auraiyya from where a .315 bore rifle and cartridges were recovered.