Ina major inter-state operation, the Punjab police on Saturday busted a gang ofMadhya Pradesh based weapons smugglers, who were supplying illegal arms andammunition to gangsters in Punjab, and arrested two persons and seized a hugecache of arms, including 12 .32 bore country made pistols and 15 magazines,from their possession. The gang apparently also has links with certain Punjabbased terrorists and is suspected of having supplied over two dozen .32 borePistols to gangsters and criminals in the state during the last 3 months alone.
Accordingto Punjab DGP, Dinkar Gupta, the intelligence led operation was carried outunder the supervision of Dhruv Dahiya, SSP, Amritsar (Rural), and the suspects,Mahesh Selotia and Jaggu were nabbed from their native villages in Khargone,MP, by a team led by DSP, Gurinder Nagra. Gupta said the raids in Khargone wereconducted after investigations into the recent seizure of four illegal .32 borecountry made pistols by Amritsar Rural police revealed the involvement of theMP based gang led by one Rahul.
TheDGP said investigations conducted so far have revealed that this gang has beeninvolved in smuggling several major weapons consignments for Punjab basedgangsters. He said that this very gang was also the source of a weaponsconsignment of six .32 bore Pistols that were intercepted and seized by thePatiala Police in September 2020. Besides, the involvement of this gang hadalso figured in a case of seizure of illegal weapons at PS Chattiwind, Amritsar(Rural).
Guptasaid that possibilities of this gang having links with Punjab terrorists cannotbe ruled out as investigations indicate that the kingpin, Rahul, was in contactwith several gangsters and hardliners lodged in Punjab’s jails and had beenactively supplying them illegal weapons. Significantly, he was also in closecontact with Akashdeep Singh- the prime accused in the drone module busted bythe Punjab Police in 2019- who is presently in Amritsar Jail. Gupta furthersaid that questioning of the arrested accused is still underway to unravel theircomplete network of contacts and their links smugglers, gangsters andterrorists in Punjab as well as in other states.
TheDGP said besides Rahul, the name of another associate of his, Gopal SinghSikligar of Satipura, r/o PS Bhagwanpura, Khargone, had been revealed duringinterrogation by the arrested suspects, Mahesh and Jaggu. He said names of bothRahul and Gopal had been included in case FIR no. 199 dated 10.12.2020 u/s 25Arms Act, PS Gharinda, Amritsar (Rural) and efforts were on to nab them.