Easy availability of arms leads to crime in city

PK Jaiswar

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 8

Incidents of crime are on the rise due to easy availability of arms and ammunition in the city.

The police have nabbed notorious elements with illegal weapons in the recent past.

The notorious elements, including gangsters, procure firearms from Uttar Pradesh and it has become a headache for the Punjab Police. Last one decade has witnessed significant increase in firing incidents.

It is an irony that the Police Department is yet to initiate any steps to curb the issue. Not only criminal elements but snatchers were also in the possession of illegal arms. Many youths too have weapons, indicating towards a growing gun culture among the young generation.

Day before yesterday, the city police have booked two persons for possessing an illegal arms. Though they managed to escape, leaving their motorcycle on the spot, the police recovered a pistol and bullets from the spot. They were identified as Gurmilap Singh, alias Gopi Mahal, of Loharaka road and Abhiraj Singh, alias Abhi Mahal.

The Cantonment police have arrested a notorious criminal, Prahlad Kumar, alias Maja, a resident of the Katra Karam Singh area, and recovered a pistol from his possession. He had nearly 20 criminal cases registered against him. According to the police, he remained associated with various gangsters and committed crimes. The .32 bore pistol, having an inscription of ‘made in USA’, and four bullets were recovered from him.

In another incident, Sartaj Singh of Margindpura in Tarn Taran was also arrested by a police team which also confiscated a .12 bore rifle with 10 cartridges from him.

CIA staff had recently brought two weapon suppliers Preet Phagwara and Raja Pahariya, arrested by the Delhi police, on police remand. They were allegedly the main weapon suppliers to gangsters and other criminal elements in Punjab. They informed the police that they used to buy illegal weapons from Uttar Pradesh and later provide these to notorious gangsters, including Karan Masti, Amanpreet Rinka, Shubham Singh.

Vavinder Mahajan, in-charge, CIA staff, said the gangsters were getting arms from UP and Bihar where these were available at cheaper rates due to presence of illegal arm factories there. Anti-social elements get the illegal arms at the rate of Rs 10,000 to Rs 30,000.

As per data available, the local police confiscated as many as 35 illegal weapons — 10 revolvers, 21 pistols, two rifles and two double barrel guns — and arrested 37 persons in this regard. The police have registered 24 cases in these incidents.

Police Commissioner SS Srivastva said the police were doing their job. As compared to the previous year, the police have seized three times more illegal weapons. In 2017, the police had recovered only 12 firearms and arrested 15 persons.