Port area new hub for arms trade

KOLKATA: During the interrogation of Tamil Nadu supari killer S

Sendril Chandran

, who was arrested from the West Port area recently , he claimed that he was there to procure weapons. More importantly , the accused, charged with at least six murders, claimed that he had been supplying illegal weapons to criminals based in Tamil Nadu from Kolkata.

Apparently , weapons can be procured from an abandoned warehouse less than a kilometre from the Port and a flat located around 500 metres from two prestigious English medium schools in Kidderpore.

This revelation, has thus, left the Kolkata Police worried about a vast areas, comprising the Port division and Maheshtala and Rabindra Nagar in the adjoining South 24 Parganas, which have seen at least four illegal weapon making units being busted last year. The worry , say officers, stems from the fact that this illegal trade has been plying on for sometime despite periodic and sustained action by police.

Even on Tuesday , the detective department arrested two persons -Joka resident Raju Biswas (35) and Ekbalpore resident Sk Sahajada (28) -from the Dhapa Road and EM Bypass crossing around 7.55pm, for dealing in firearms made in Kolkata. Two firearms and several rounds of cartridges were recovered from them. Joint CP (crime) Vishal Garg said that Biswas is a repeat offender having been arrested by the Shyampukur and North Port police in 2013 and 2016.Shahjada too is a known arms dealer having been arrested earlier by the North Port, Posta and Ekbalpore police.

The CID and the Port police said that many Munger gunmakers have made the Port area their new home. “Many small-time ruffians are laying hands on weapons and the murders even for petty crimes in se veral parts of the city, including Netaji Nagar, New Alipore and Zakaria Street, are a proof of it. “Gun consignments were smuggled in from near the Bangladesh border at Krishnagar-Jadabpur, Lalgola and Chandrabandha-Burimari to Titagarh through Howrah. But of late, only raw materials are making way to the Port-Maheshtala belt. The assembling takes place in the Port area,“ said a top police source.

Kolkata Police records present a similar picture. “One can buy improvised handguns and bullets at throwaway prices at Metiabruz, Garden Reach and a few pockets on the city's southeastern fringes. A second-hand single shooter costs as low as Rs 800 and a new one anywhere between Rs 2,500 Rs 3,000. Sixers cost between Rs Rs 20,000 Rs 30,000 and a 0.9mm costs about Rs 40,000.The price of 0.35 bullets is as low as Rs 150,“ an officer said.

When the central agencies cracked whip on gunrunners in the eastern states, including Bengal, they found that some illegal gun factories were funded from bank loans taken under the Centre-sponsored `Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Yojna'.Another shocking revelation was the deployment of common people, with no criminal record, to ferry weapons. “A few arrests won't do.We are planning a sustained campaign where the Port's SSPD unit, DD and STF will work in tandem and in close coordination with cops from other states,“ said an officer at Lalbazar.

Times View

Cops going after this trade comes as some solace but this would become more worrying if it becomes a trend. Not all the produce coming from this illegal trade will be used outside the state; some of it will singe Bengal and Kolkata as well.

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