An alleged bulk supplier of firearms has been arrested by the Delhi Police Crime Branch along with his conduit. The police claim to have seized from them a 9 mm carbine machine gun and nine small firearms besides 38 live cartridges.
During an ongoing crackdown on gunrunners, the special unit of the Crime Branch recently received a tip-off about a gang headed allegedly by one Saurabh (24) which supplied firearms procured from Munger in Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh to criminals operating in and around the Capital.
The police team zeroed in on the suspects and based on the input that they would come to Karkari Mod in East Delhi in a car to deliver a consignment of illegal firearms to a client, laid a trap around the rendezvous point on Saturday.
In the afternoon when two young men turned up in a vehicle, the policemen overpowered them following a brief scuffle and seized from them a carbine, eight pistols and a revolver of different bores apart from the live cartridges. They were identified as Saurabh, a resident of Dasna in neighbouring Ghaziabad, and Vinay Pawar (23). The vehicle was also impounded and the accused booked under the Arms Act.
During interrogation, Saurabh purportedly disclosed that he had been operating for the past two years and had so far supplied 50 sophisticated firearms in and around Delhi. The duo procured the supplies from their contact in Munger.
The accused had procured the carbine for over Rs.1.5 lakh and planned to sell it for about Rs.2.5 lakh. They had bought the small firearms for Rs.15,000 to Rs.30,000 each and would make an average profit of Rs.5,000 to Rs.7,000 per firearm.
“Saurabh’s father ran a sweetmeat shop in Dasna. He dropped out of school after Class IV and started assisting his father, who passed away five years ago. Saurabh entered into gunrunning business through one Shakil. The second accused, Vinay, joined Saurabh to overcome a financial crisis after suffering huge losses in a business venture. Saurabh paid him a good commission for bringing in customers,” said a police officer, adding that efforts are being made to identify the others involved in the supply of firearms.
