Inter-state arms trafficker nabbed in Delhi
New Delhi: The Special Cell of Delhi Police has arrested an inter-state arms trafficker who supplied semi-automatic weapons to gangsters and criminals across the national capital, an official said on Tuesday.
The accused has been identified as Sonu (38), a resident of Hapur in Uttar Pradesh, who trafficked around 40 pistols since January. Eight semi-automatic pistols and 10 bullets were recovered from his possession
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell), Alok Kumar, said that a tip-off was received that gangsters and hardcore criminals in Delhi-NCR have been procuring sophisticated firearms from some inter-state arms suppliers.
“On November 23, specific information was received that a member of this syndicate, Sonu, had collected a consignment of firearms and ammunition from an arms supplier in Madhya Pradesh, and would arrive near the bus stop at Dhaula Kuan to hand over the same to one of his contacts between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m.,” the DCP said.
Accordingly, a trap was laid by the police and Sonu was cornered at about 3:20 p.m. while he was waiting for someone at the bus stop.
“On sensing being surrounded by the police, he even whipped out his pistol, pointed its towards the police, and threatened to open fire, but he was overpowered and disarmed by the members of the raiding team,” the DCP said.
The DCP said that Sonu is a habitual criminal and has been previously involved in more than half-a-dozen cases of robbery, attempt to murder, drugs trafficking etc. in Ghaziabad and Amroha, UP.
On interrogation, he disclosed that after being released from a jail in Chhattisgarh, he started trafficking firearms from Burhanpur.
“He has trafficked almost 40 pistols in the past one year. The recovered firearms were bought from a person named Ramesh Sardar and were to be delivered to a person named Alam in Delhi. Efforts are on to identify the other members of the syndicate,” the officer said.
“The accused disclosed that he used to purchase a semi-automatic pistol for Rs 8,000 from MP and sell it for Rs 25,000 to criminals in Delhi-NCR,” the DCP added.