6 arrested from Bijnor madrassa with illegal arms sent to police custody

Bijnor: A local court on Wednesday gave district police three-day remand of six persons who are under arrest for allegedly keeping illegal arms in a madrassa in Bijnor’s Sherkot area. Now, a joint team of Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) and police will question the accused. Police had raided madrassa Darul Quran Hameediya on July 10 afternoon after a tip-off and recovered five illegal arms, including a pistol of .32 bore with two magazines having 8 cartridges, one country-made pistol of .32 bore with 16 cartridges and three tamanchas of .315 bore with 16 cartridges and a car from the spot.

Superintendent of police (city) Vishvajeet Shrivastava said, “Police have taken remand of all six accused who were arrested from Sherkot madrassa for selling illegal arms. ATS and IB also are interrogating them.” Police are also exploring the possibility of arms procurement from Bihar as one of the persons arrested belongs to the state.

Madrassa manager Mohammad Sajid used the institution to market illegal arms, police said.

Bijnor superintendent of police Sanjeev Tyagi had said, “Six persons we detained on Wednesday were found to be involved in the trade of country-made weapons. Madrassa manager Mohammad Sajid used the institution to market illegal arms. There are two others who are absconding -- Arif and Asif. Arif is a history-sheeter.”