Ina major inter-state operation, Punjab Police on Saturday busted another MadhyaPradesh (MP) based illicit weapon supply network with the arrest of its mainsupplier, identified as Baljit Singh @Sweety Singh of district Barwani in MP.
SweetySingh, a resident of village Umarti in Barwani MP has been found indulging inmanufacturing and supply of high-quality illicit weapons to Punjab and otherstates of northern India, said Director General of Police (DGP) Dinkar Guptahere. Kapurthala Police have also recovered three .32 bore Pistols, along with3 magazines from his possession, he added.
Notably,this is the 3rd such MP-based illegal weapon manufacturing and supply modulebusted by the Punjab Police with the last 8 months. Earlier, Amritsar RuralPolice had unearthed two such modules, including one illicit Small ArmsManufacturing unit in MP with the arrest of weapon smugglers, who weresupplying weapons to gangsters, criminals and radicals in Punjab.
Sharingdetails, DGP Dinkar Gupta said that the development came 10 days after theKapurthala Police in the vigorous follow-up operations led by SSP HarkamalpreetSingh Khakh had arrested four robbers after recovering 10 Pistols and oneRifle, along with ammunition, from their possession.
Hesaid that the arrested robbers revealed they were getting the supply of weaponsfrom MP based smuggler Sweety Singh and were hatching a conspiracy to carry ourrobberies and dacoities, snatch money from Petrol Pumps as well as farmers.
DGPDinkar Gupta said that following these inputs, the Kapurthala police procuredarrest warrants of Sweety Singh and a special police team from Kapurthala was dispatched to district Barwani to arrest him after coordinating the operationswith MP Police.
"Aftervigorous efforts, the Punjab Police team, while working closely with MP Police,managed to arrest Sweety Singh, who unsuccessfully attempted to evade arrest bycrossing the Narmada river to enter the Maharashtra border," he said.
TheDGP also thanked the Madhya Pradesh Police for their enormous support to thePunjab Police in unearthing these illicit weapon manufacturing and supply unitsand modules.
SSPKhakh said that Sweety had disclosed that he and his elder brother, Sumer Singhwere into this weapons manufacturing and supply trade from many years and theyused to upload videos of Pistols on various social media platforms to luretheir customers and this is how the present robber module of Punjab establishedcontact with them.
He said initial investigations found that Sweety was runninga YouTube channel on name of 'Azad Group Munger' on which he used to flourishhis illegal weapons business and when buyers ask about price, the group used toshare their whatsapp number.
Sweetyalso revealed that of around 40-45 houses in their village Umarti, more than 20were involved in the business of manufacturing and sale of illicit weapons,especially .30 bore and .32 bore Pistols, Khakh added.
Meanwhile,the FIR No 81 dated 30-06-21 had been registered under sections 399 and 402 ofthe Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 25 of the Arms Act at Police StationFattudhinga Kapurthala.