New Delhi: The Special Cell of Delhi Police arrested two people with illegal pistols and cartridges from gate no. 1 of Indraprastha Park, the police said on Tuesday.
DCP Special Cell Sanjeev Kumar Yadav told IANS: “The two arms smugglers have been identified as Naresh Singh (55) and Mahendra Kumar (39), both from Firozabad district of Uttar Pradesh.”
“The police recovered 25 semi-automatic pistols and 50 live cartridges from them,” he said.
Yadav said a special team under ACP Jasbir Singh which included Inspector Vivekanand Tripathi and Kuldeep Singh raided the hideouts of the smugglers for one month. The team learnt that most of the illegal arms and ammunition in Delhi comes from Khargaon, Dhar, Manawar and Burhanpur (MP).
The Delhi police is trying to find out whether the arrested smugglers supplied the weapons to someone in the northeast Delhi area.
However, an official of the Special Cell told IANS that it is doubtful that these two will be able to shed light on it as the kingpin never allows the carriers to meet the person to whom the weapons are sold. The carriers give the consignment to another smuggler in the state who then sells them.
The DCP Special Cell told IANS: “Naresh Singh has been involved in smuggling of arms and ammunition for the last many years. Two cases under Arms Act are registered against him in Uttar Pradesh also. He was arrested twice in UP, first in 2016 from Narkhi in Firozabad and then in 2017 under the Gangster Act.”
During interrogation, Naresh Singh told the police that he was involved in smuggling for the last 8-10 years and he brings arms mostly from Manawar in MP and the cartridges from Hapur in UP.
Mahendra Kumar started smuggling in 2015 after he came in contact with Naresh Singh. Earlier, he used to work as an electrician. Two cases under Arms Act are registered against him also in New Agra police station.
Since 2018, the Delhi Police have seized more than 700 illegal semi-automatic guns.
