In one of the biggest haul of illegal weapons in recent times, the Delhi Police recovered 50 pistols and 100 cartridges from a man on Tuesday.
The arrested man revealed during interrogation that he had supplied more than 400 pistols to criminals in Delhi and the NCR ever since he entered the trade 18 months ago.
Savinder Kumar, 33, had carved out a cavity in the boot of his Chevrolet Aveo car to smuggle these weapons into Delhi.
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For several months now, Delhi Police’s Special Cell has been aware of illegal firearms being supplied to Delhi from Jharkhand. Sources were deployed and surveillance was mounted to bust the racket.
“Very recently, one of our sources revealed the suspect’s name and the brand and colour of the car being used for supplying the weapons. Specific inputs were received on Tuesday about the fact that the suspect would be arriving in South-East Delhi’s Sarai Kale Khan to deliver weapons to someone,” said Sanjeev Kumar Yadav, DCP (Special Cell).
A trap was laid and the suspect arrived in a Chevrolet Aveo car, but there was some confusion in identifying the suspect, which almost allowed the suspect to get away.
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“It was only in the last minute that we decided to intercept the suspect. He was frisked and a 7.65 bore pistol was recovered from his possession. He tried to hoodwink us and get away lightly by claiming he possessed only one weapon,” said another officer involved in the operation.
The officers decided to carefully search his car when they stumbled upon the cavity in its boot. Forty-nine more pistols of .32 bore and 100 cartridges were found neatly stacked inside.
Natives of Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, suspect Savinder’s family is mainly into farming. Educated until class 12, Savinder did not want to continue farming and took to supply of weapons 18 months ago.
He has allegedly confessed to having visited Delhi six times so far with a total consignment of “semi-automatic high-quality” 400 pistols.
Initially, Savinder served only as a carrier of weapons for the Dhanbad-based manufacturers. But a year ago, he decided to enter the business of manufacturing and assembling these illegal firearms in his village in Meerut.
“He was helped in this project by the Dhanbad-based manufacturers he was working for. They helped him with raw material and workers from Jharkhand for starting the unit that has been operational since a month,” said the DCP.
Savinder has also been revealed to be involved in an attempt to murder case following a quarrel in his village. He was briefly jailed before being released on bail.
Police said they are still early into the investigation and subsequent interrogation of Savinder should reveal the identities of his handlers who were managing the racket.