In bid to nab middlemen, police team heads to Bihar

KOLKATA: A police team from Kolkata has left for Bihar to trace at least two middlemen associated with the arms smuggling gang, that was unmasked on Monday leading to the arrest of six persons. The arrested persons include two junior officers of Rifle Factory Ishapore (RFI).
STF sources said the suspected duo acted as intermediaries between RFI’s contractual labourer Umesh Roy alias Bhola and arms dealer Jayshankar Pandey alias Panditji.Reportedly, the gang’s prime objective was to smuggle parts that could be assembled later. The barrels produced by RFI were in high demand.
“Even the low quality barrels that were rejected by RFI were better than the ones made in the Munger mills. Therefore, the Bihar-based arms dealers stopped purchasing from Munger,” claimed a police source.
“A minor mistake made by Bhola led us to the gang. His statement will be crucial in identifying those who continued to source weapons from RFI even after the arrest of their original source — contractual worker Dipak Sahu and RFI official Sambhu Bhattacharya — around eight months ago,” the source added.
Police sources said since the arrest of Sahu, Panditji became increasingly reliant on Bhola for arms. “A consignment was taken out of RFI even after Sahu’s arrest last year. The dealers in Bihar relied on agents to carry out the delivery process. We knew the suspects and waited for the main gunrunners to show up,” said a top STF source.
“Bhola knew he had been marked by the police and insisted that the two gunrunners themselves went down to collect the consignment. Therefore, this month, they (arrested dealers Ajay Pandey and Panditji) met Bhola at a hotel in Noapara and we knew we had our man,” he added.
Police sources said that the two arrested RFI officials were questioned at length. Based on their inputs, the cops left for Bihar. “We are looking for a person who seems to have been in touch with Bhola on a daily basis. He had earlier been nabbed by the Bihar STF but is now out of jail,” added the officer.
The STF jumped to action last year after Lalu — a contractual labourer working at the pistol section of RFI — was arrested from Kolkata on September 18. A 9mm pistol, assembled with components made at the factory, was seized from him.