Engineer by day, gun runner by night? Bhopal man linked to Bengaluru arms supply arrested

BENGALURU: Sleuths of the Central Crime Branch (CCB) have arrested a 34-year-old man from Madhya Pradesh for allegedly supplying country-made pistols and live ammunition to a businessman in Bengaluru.The accused, Syed Irfan Hyder Rizwi, a civil engineer and resident of Bhopal, was nabbed following the arrest of two youths earlier this month.In the earlier operation, CCB police had arrested Syed Masood from Jayanagar and Javed Alam, also from Bhopal, after recovering a country-made pistol and live bullets from Masood, who is a businessman.During interrogation, Masood told police that he had purchased the weapon for around Rs 40,000 with Alam’s help. He claimed he was in a relationship opposed by the girl’s family and had bought the pistol for self-protection after receiving threats.Police said Alam acted as a middleman, facilitating illegal firearm deals. Based on his statement, Rizwi was traced and arrested.According to investigators, Rizwi revealed that he had sourced the weapon from a man in Indore allegedly involved in manufacturing illegal firearms.“We will question Rizwi further to gather more details and are working to identify and arrest the manufacturer,” a senior police officer said.