Arms licence scam: Probe widens as Gujarat cops arrive in state

Samaan Lateef

Tribune News Service

Srinagar September 21

After the Rajasthan Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) visited the state, the Gujarat police have landed in Kashmir to investigate the arms licence racket, which appears to have ruffled many feathers here.

Officials said the Gujarat Police have questioned state officials after it seized several arms licences issued by J&K to people in Gujarat.

“This (arms licence racket) is turning huge and seems to have acquired alarming proportions. Now, the Gujarat Police have come here to investigate certain details about the issuance of arms licences,” a senior official privy to the investigations told The Tribune.

The investigations by the Rajasthan and Gujarat police have irked J&K officials, who are criticising the state police for not taking up the investigation as the case pertains to the state.

“Why can’t the J&K Police take up the investigation and pass on the reports to their counterparts in Rajasthan and Gujarat in a coordinated manner,” said a senior J&K official.

The Rajasthan ATS had recently sought details of top officers posted in the J&K Home Department since 2001 along with their approved signatures and handwriting.

On September 11, the Rajasthan ATS had arrested three arms dealers who supplied arms licences to customers.

The investigation led to an inter-state racket engaged in issuing arms licences from militancy-hit J&K to people in other states of the country.

It seized over 100 arms licences with a huge cache of weapons from raids at 12 locations in four states.

Officials say the licences were being made in Kathua, Kupwara, Ramban and Jammu and were sold at Rs 3 lakh.

A similar racket had surfaced in 2012 when the Additional Commissioner of Police, Special Cell, Delhi, had informed the state government that in Doda and Ramban districts, gun licences were issued in the name of security personnel, which on verification were found to be fake and bogus.

“Some of the persons in whose name the licences have been issued have been found not to be working in the Army but have criminal records in New Delhi and are thus not eligible for obtaining the gun licences,” reads an official communication from the home department in 2012.

The J&K home department has initiated an inquiry and sought reports from several district deputy commissioners to provide the details of arms licences issued from their districts.