The Delhi Police Special Cell has seized an AK-47 automatic assault rifle, 30 pistols and as many spare magazines from a gang of illegal arms suppliers in the Capital.
The seizure has sent the security agencies into a tizzy as this is for the first time an original AK-47 has been seized from the Capital. According to the police, the AK-47 and all other seized weapons were made in Munger, Bihar, and were allegedly smuggled in by three men who have been identified as Shamim (46), Vijay Pal (32) and Taslim (36), all residents of Muzaffarnagar in UP.
They were arrested on Sunday from Bhagat Singh Park, Yamuna Vihar, around 5 p.m., after the police received a tip-off about their presence in that area. An in-house study into the growing use of sophisticated firearms over the past few years revealed that in most cases illicit weapons manufactured in Munger were being smuggled into Delhi. Keeping this in mind, the Special Cell started working on ‘Operation Munger’. “This is for the first time since the Special Cell started the work on ‘Operation Munger’, an improvised AK-47 rifle has been recovered. The craftsmanship can be judged by the fact that the recovered weapon is an exact imitation of the original AK-47 assault rifle,” said Special Commissioner (Special Cell) S.N. Shrivastava.
Along with the AK-47 and its magazine, 30 semi-automatic pistols along with 30 spare magazines have been recovered from the accused persons. The police claimed that during interrogation the accused told them that an AK-47 is made only on demand and the one recovered from them was meant for a high-profile gangster in Western UP.
Published - June 07, 2014 11:05 am IST