Gang supplying illegal arms busted

PATNA: The city police on Saturday claimed to have busted a gang involved in the supply of illegal sophisticated weapons.
The city police have arrested two persons, including one alleged arms dealer Manoj Singh, from an area under the Pataliputra police station on Saturday.
The police have recovered three revolvers, several live cartridges, two motorcycles, one Maruti van and other equipment meant to engrave new number on the chassis and engines of the stolen vehicles.
"The arms dealer Manoj is a clerk in DAV, Pataliputra. He used to supply arms to different persons in the city after procuring them from a gang based in Biharsharif.
"This gang was also active in making fake documents of the vehicles stolen or snatched by criminals," the DSP (Law & Order), Shashi Bhushan Sharma, said.
Sharma said the city police got an information about the availability of countrymade pistols and revolvers in a paan shop run by one Dilip Kumar Deo near Patliputra roundabout.
"Manoj used to keep the arms in the paan shop from where the same was supplied to customers," Sharma said.
To a question, Sharma said the recovered pistols and revolvers were sold in the market at different prices ranging from Rs 12,000 to 16,000 while Manoj used to get them for Rs 7,000.
The police sources said the alleged arms dealer, Manoj, has disclosed the names of three persons to whom he supplied weapons recently.
"We are raiding their houses," said officer-in-charge of Patliputra police station Vijay Kumar. According to Vijay, this gang possessed a "punching machine" and with its help the gang used to erase the numbers of stolen vehicles and replaced them with new numbers.
Police sources disclosed that the gang supplied weapons to several persons including businessmen in the city. "In the present situation, pistols and revolvers are in huge demand among a section of people in the city," said a source in the Pataliputra police station. With the busting of this gang, the police hope to get further information about other incidents.