New Delhi:

 A 33-year-old man was arrested from Uttar Pradesh for allegedly making and smuggling illegal firearms, police said on Tuesday.

The accused has been identified as Lalit Kumar, a resident of Bagpat in UP, they said, adding that an illegal manufacturing unit was busted.

Earlier on Wednesday, police arrested Bintu. One semi-automatic pistol, along with six live cartridges, was recovered from his possession and a search of his bag led to the recovery of nine more semi-automatic pistols, 18 single-shot pistols and 148 live cartridges of different types of bores, a senior police officer said.

Bintu disclosed that he had received the firearms from Kumar. He had provided Kumar’s mobile number which was found active in Bagpat. Police conducted a raid at Gauna village in Bagpat and nabbed Kumar on Sunday, Deputy Commissioner of Police (north) Sagar Singh Kalsi said.

After sustained interrogation, he produced a plastic bag and on checking the same, one carbine, five pistols and 75 live cartridges of two types of bores were recovered, Kalsi said.

Kumar disclosed that in 2013, he started a work of welding, but he was not satisfied with his earnings. Meanwhile, he met Johny Pradhan, resident of his nearby village, and he introduced Kumar to Deepak Yadav, a politician-cum-illegal firearms smuggler, police said.

He was allured that Yadav runs a factory manufacturing illegal firearms. In 2015, the factory of Yadav was busted by the UP Police and many weapons were recovered from it, but he managed to escape, they said.

Later, Kumar met Pradhan who advised him to start their own work of manufacturing illegal firearms. They established a factory and supplied illegal firearms to gangs in western UP as well as Sonipat, Rohtak and Jhajjar in Haryana, police said.

In 2019, the UP Police busted their factory and both were arrested and many weapons were recovered. After getting bail, he met his friends Surender, Sumit, and Bittu and planned to start manufacturing illegal firearms again, they said.

They started a factory and smuggled illegal firearms to various gangsters in UP, Haryana and Delhi. On Wednesday, he came to Delhi to supply illegal firearms to Bintu– a gang member of Pradeep Kasni. He managed to escape from the spot, police said.

He further disclosed that he had received around 500 live cartridges of different types of bore from Yadav in 2020. Only 229 live cartridges remained and on Wednesday, he had given 154 live cartridges to Bintu along with firearms, they said.

On Sunday, a raid was conducted in the Loni area and a factory was identified where he manufactured illegal firearms. Some manufacturing machines, tools, iron rods, wooden pieces, iron sheets which were used to make illegal firearms and raw materials of manufacturing around 200 to 250 illegal firearms were also recovered, they added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Meerut:

A coaching centre teacher in Meerut was arrested and kept in custody on charges of being an arms smuggler after the police recovered a pistol from his motorcycle. There was one problem with the arrest though – the pistol that was recovered was allegedly planted by a policeman, and he was caught on camera doing so.

Even the visual evidence from the CCTV camera in the house did not ensure that the man was freed immediately. The man’s sister spent the whole night outside the house of the Meerut inspector general of police to have their side of the story heard, and the man was let go over 15 hours later.

The teacher’s family had a long-standing dispute with another family from the area, and the two constables allegedly planted the evidence and arrested the teacher on the “request” of the other family. The constables have been transferred to police lines and an investigation is on. 

Around 8 pm on Tuesday, two police constables entered the gate of coaching centre teacher Ankit Tyagi’s house in Meerut district’s Kharkhoda. Footage from a CCTV camera shows one of them planting what appears to be a pistol on a bike parked inside the house. 

The two policemen then catch hold of Ankit, who was studying inside, and march him out. They are then seen “recovering” the pistol from the bike.

Ankit was taken to the Kharkhoda police station, where the policemen showed that the pistol was recovered from him. They arrested the teacher on charges of arms smuggling.

Ankit’s sister, Rakhi, with her infant in her arms, rushed to the office of the Meerut inspector general of police with the video, and begged to be allowed to show it to him, but was refused permission. She waited there the whole night, hoping that since the IG’s house is also in the same premises, she would be granted an audience with him. 

“Two cops came to our house. My younger brother has been implicated in a fake case. First they planted the pistol on the bike, and then arrested him,” said Rakhi.

Rakhi was finally allowed to meet the IG around 11 am on Wednesday. She filed a complaint, presented the video and Ankit was let go some time after that. 

SP (Rural) Kamlesh Bahadur Singh said, “There seems to be something suspicious in the behaviour of the policemen. We are carrying out an investigation.”