Makeshift gun factory busted in Mokama, three arrested

PATNA: Police busted a

makeshift gun factory

leading to the recovery of a large cache of partially or fully manufactured firearms and ammunition, and arrested three persons at a village under

Mokama

police station area in rural

Patna

on Thursday.

SP (rural) Kantesh Kumar Mishra said the factory was running inside the house of one Ashok Mistry.

“Mistry along with Sooraj Kumar and a minor were arrested. Ashok is aged around 35 years and Sooraj is his son who is 19 years old. The minor is a resident of Saket Vihar in

Phulwarisharif

,” he said.

Mishra said six country-made breach-load pistols, one country-made semiautomatic pistol with magazine, 11 partially manufactured pistols, 19 bodies of pistols, 20 different sized barrels for use in these pistols and six live cartridges were recovered from the spot.

“Besides these firearms, equipment like an electrical and hand-held drilling machine, gas-welding machine, grinder, two generators, hammers and several other items were seized from the spot,” Mishra said.

Mokama police station SHO Raj Nandan said Ashok runs an iron grill manufacturing shop at his house. “In the guise of this shop, he was operating the gun factory,” he said.

Nandan said Ashok used to manufacture these firearms and sell them in bulk to smugglers and suppliers from other districts in the state.

“His modus-operandi of not selling the country-made firearms to people from Patna and neighbouring areas kept his activities hidden from police for long,” he said.

The SHO said Ashok is accused in four criminal cases of which two are registered with Noorsarai police station in

Nalanda

and one each with Mokama and Barh.

“In Barh, he is accused in a theft case while in Mokama, a loot case is registered against him. One of the cases in Noorsarai is of an attempt to murder where he had shot at a person,” SHO Nandan said, adding the investigation is going on in connection with the case.