The Special Cell of Delhi Police busted an interstate illegal ammunition supply racket with 4500 cartridges and arrested six alleged key players on Thursday. Some of the accused an MBA holders sharply formed an alleged syndicate to supply ammunition in Delhi and NCR. The accused also procured illegal ammunition from Pune.
The special cell officials arrested accused identified as Ramesh Kumar (46) of Karnal in Haryana, Deepanshu Mishra (35) of Etawah in UP, Amit Rao (33) of Rewari in Haryana, one Ikram (40) and one Akram (42) of Muzaffar Nagar in UP, and Manoj Kumar Chauhan (39) of Shaharanpur im UP.
The police seized the haul from the cars they were reportedly found driving, one Hyundai Car No. HR26CR2072 and one Tata Manza Car No. UP78BX7674 was allegedly used for supplying cartridges have also been recovered. The police alsoe seized their mobile handsets and SIM cards allegedly used in the illegal cartridges supplying activities have also been recovered from them.
The officials states that this is the biggest haul of illegal live cartridges seized in Delhi in last one year.
According to the senior officials, the Special Cell of Delhi Police had increased surveillance on activities of illegal firearms and ammunition syndicates, during which a new syndicate was identified which was involved in pumping cartridges in Delhi/NCR areas from nearby areas of Haryana and UP besides other areas of the country.
The special cell had received a tip off on February 14 that the accused were going to reach Mukundpur flyover at the outer ring road in Delhi. At about 3:10am, the accused Ramesh Kumar arrived in his Hyundai i20 Car No. HR-26CR-2072 and after five minutes Deepanshu Mishra arrived in his red colour Tata Manza car No. UP-78BX-7674.
The officials added that Ramesh Kumar handed over one white plastic bag to Deepanshu. 4000 illegal cartridges were recovered from both accused persons with 2000 cartridges found in each car.
The interogation of the accused led to main source of the syndicate allegedly operating from Jaipur in Rajasthan who was identified as Amit. Amit was arrested from Mansarovar industrial area in Jaipur. During spot interrogation, he confessed to his indulgence in supplying of cartridges illegally to various persons including Deepanshu.
The interrogation and disclosure of Ramesh reportedly led to multiple raids in Haryana and led to the arrest of Ikram who is allegedly a regular receipient of cartridges from Ramesh. The accused Akram who was also arrested from Haryana was allegedly found with 500 more live cartridges. Similarly accused Manoj was also a regular receipient of illegal cartridges from Ramesh.
The officials added that the accused further disclosed that they used to receive supply of cartridges from Ramesh Kumar illegally and further supply the same to various persons including criminals of Haryana and UP.
The accused Ramesh Kumar is reportedly working in Ambala Gun House since 2018. Earlier he worked in another gun house in Ambala. Ramesh reportedly earned low income from his work and lured Amit Rao, (owner of Ambala Gun House) to sell cartridges illegally in grey market so that they could earn quick money. Amit used to purchase cartridges from ammunition company but did not make proper entry in the record book. Ramesh and Amit then used to sell these cartridges after illegally siphoning off from ammunition stock at Ambala Gun House, at higher rates to various persons including Deepanshu and other three arrested persons for Rs. 125 per cartridge.
Another accused, Deepanshu did his MBA degree in marketing and used to work in a software company in Noida. His father had a gun house in Etawah, UP which was closed after the latter's death in 2015. Deepanshu used to visit Karnal with his father and there he met Ramesh. Due to lockdown, he was sacked from the job. He contacted Ramesh and asked him to supply cartridges illegally to him in order to earn quick money. Ramesh started supplying cartridges illegally to Deepanshu who procured cartridges from Ramesh and further supply these cartridges for Rs. 200 to 250 per cartridge to his contacts in UP and Delhi.
The police found out that the cartridges supplied by him in Delhi and UP eventually go in the hands of dreaded criminals of Delhi and adjoining states. He has been indulging in this illegal trade of supplying of firearms for more than an year.
The accused Amit is also a MBA from Kurukshetra University in Haryana. He also did hotel management and had worked with few reputed hotels in different capacity. After the death of his uncle who owned the Ambala gun house he started managing the same .He is also doing job in an Institute in Jaipur as administration head. However, in order to keep the work at abala gun house going, he allegedly employed Ramesh. It was on resh's suggestion to allegedly illegally supply cartridges for quick money, Amit joined the syndicate.
The officials found that the accused carried out the illegal sale and escaping police radar by making entry for lesser number of cartridges as compared to actual received in the gun house and sometimes made false sale entries against the arms license available with them. The accused also bougbt cartridges from Pune for Rs. 80 per cartridge without making entries of the same and sold the same in Delhi.
The accused Ikram and Akram are brother who reportedly learnt gun repairing from their father. While doing air gun repairing work on commission basis, they got in contact with accused Ramesh.
The accused were produced in Patiala House court and we're remanded to police custody for further investigations.
