Inter-state gang of illegal weapon smugglers busted

Ludhiana: In a joint operation, Ludhiana commissionerate’s counter-intelligence cell and the CIA-1 busted an inter-state gang of illegal weapon smugglers here on Tuesday. Police said the accused used to smuggle the weapons using fake Facebook profiles. Two pistols of .32 bore, four live cartridges, two magazines and three cellphones have been recovered from their possession.

The arrested are Harinderpal, 39, of Lallian Khurd village, Jalandhar; Balwinder Singh, 39, of Badhala village, Jalandhar; and Arjan Kumar, 22, a native of Madhya Pradesh and resident of Haibowal. They were arrested near Lajpat Nagar park, close to Ludhiana bus stand.

Deputy commissioner of police (investigation) SPS Dhindsa said, “Recently, the Ludhiana police had arrested some accused who smuggled illegal weapons from Madhya Pradesh and sold those here. Their disclosures and other inputs led the city police and the counter-intelligence cell to the three accused.”

“Arjan hails from Madhya Pradesh, from where he used to smuggle illegal weapons not only to Punjab, but to other states as well. Arjan, along with his accomplices Harinderpal and Balwinder, ran the trade. The trio would make fake Facebook accounts to contact their customers, fix the deals and prices of weapons and then made the supply,” Dhindsa added.

Harinderpal has five criminal cases against him, including those of scuffle, Arms Act, NDPS Act and murder. In the murder case, he was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment. After spending six-and-a-half years in jail, he came out on bail. “We will get his bail cancelled. We will also trace those who have purchased weapons from them,” he said.

‘A community in MP making illegal weapons’

Additional deputy commissioner of police (investigation) Rupinder Kaur Bhatti said, “There are two to three villages in Madhya Pradesh that are involved in this illegal trade. A community there, which earlier worked in iron factories, has been making illegal weapons at home for the past some time. Initially, they would make weapons manually, but now they have machines installed at their houses. It is a big illegal trade of weapons.”

Made Fb a/cs in gangsters’ names

ADCP Bhatti said in some cases, the accused have used the names of gangsters to make Facebook accounts so that they can contact like-minded people to smuggle weapons. The police will question the accused about their clientele.


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