Cross-border arms smuggling racket busted, 1 held with pistols

The Amritsar commissionerate police have busted a cross-border arms smuggling racket with the arrest of a person here on Tuesday. The police also recovered five sophisticated 9MM Glock pistols along with four magazines from his possession.

The arrested person has been identified as Amit Singh, a resident of Guru Ki Wadali at Chheharta in Amritsar. Apart from recovering weapons, police teams also impounded his motorcycle, which the suspect was using to deliver the consignments.

Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav said preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect, along with his associate Gurpreet Singh, alias Ginny, was in touch with Pakistan-based smugglers, who were pushing weapon consignments to disturb peace and harmony in the state.

The DGP said the arrest and recovery helped in unearthing the network and averting a major crime in the region. More arrests and recoveries are expected in the coming days, he said.

Sharing operation details, Commissioner of Police, Amritsar, Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said acting on reliable information, a team of the Chheharta police station under the supervision of DCP (Detective) Ravinderpal Singh, ADCP-2 Harpal Singh and ACP (West) Shivdarshan Singh carried out an intel-based operation leading to the arrest of suspect Amit Singh when he was on the way to deliver the weapon consignment to someone.

The Commissioner of Police said a probe has revealed that the suspect used to receive weapon consignments dropped via drones from locations provided by cross-border handlers. Further investigations are on to establish backward and forward linkages in the case, he said, adding that efforts are being made to identify the person, to whom the suspect was going to deliver the consignment.

A case under Section 25 of the Arms Act has been registered against him at the Chheharta police station in Amritsar.