Verification of 22,500 licence holders begins in Tarn Taran

PK Jaiswar
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, January 21

The Tarn Taran police have started verifying the details of as many as 22,500 arms licences issued by the district administration over the years. The police got the data of the arms licence holders from the district administration in the regard. There are four cases regarding the seizure of fake arms licences registered with the Tarn Taran police during the last four years which are still pending.

Recently, a case under the Arms Act had been registered by the Tarn Taran police. Three months ago, the police had got specific input that Karwinder Singh Cheema, an employee at the Deputy Commissioner’s office, in connivance with Mani, a resident of Pandori Gola village, had prepared over 200 fake arms licences on the basis of fake documents in the last few years.

SSP Dhruman H Nimbale said there were 17 gun houses in Tarn Taran and the antecedents of each and every arms licence holder would be verified thoroughly. He said they had got the records of 22,500 arms licence holders from the Deputy Commissioner’s office.

“We have deputed gazetted officers to check the records of these gun house and each arms licence holder,” said Nimbale. The police believe that over 700 arms licences might be fake.

The first case of fake arms licence was registered with the Tarn Taran police in 2016 which was still being probed by the special investigating team formed by the then Tarn Taran SSP. Karwinder was the prime suspect in this case also.

The case was registered following investigation carried out by a Deputy Commissioner of Police (Amritsar) at that time. The DCP had pointed out that over 400 arms licences were reportedly fake and in many of them the police could not trace the licencees. Terming it a matter of national security, he had recommended the registration of an FIR and further investigation.

After the case was registered, an enquiry was marked to the then AIG (Crime), Amritsar. He had allegedly given a clean chit to Karwinder Cheema. However, this report was not accepted by the Director Bureau of Investigation as the matter pertained to national security and asked the Tarn Taran SSP to probe the case thoroughly. Following this, an SIT was formed to probe the case.

Another case was slapped by the Vigilance Bureau, Amritsar, after a fire gutted the records in the arms licensing branch at Tarn Taran. A report from Powercom officials had revealed that the fire did not erupt due to a short circuit as was alleged. The VB was also investigating a complaint of fake arms licences.

Another case was registered with the Patti police station in June 2020 wherein five weapons and four fake arms licences were recovered.

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