Use of illegal weapons in Baddi-Barotiwala Nalagarh industrial area cause for concern
The use of illegal weapons in the industrial belt of Baddi-Barotiwala Nalagarh (BBN) has become a cause for concern for the authorities concerned and are also a threat to peace in the area.
An analysis of the recent crimes reveals an increasing use of such weapons either by migrants or inter-state gangs operating from the border areas of Punjab like Ropar.
The area has a large number of migrants from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, etc, who work in factories as this industrial cluster houses more than 90 per cent of the state’s industry. Though efforts have been made to register the migrants, police officials rue that requests for the verification of the antecedents of migrants often fall on deaf ears.
In a large number of recent cases, illegal weapons were used to intimidate residents. In a recent case, the police seized a country-made gun from a jhuggi dweller identified as Tota Ram (34) at Haripur Sandholi village in Baddi. A native of Bisoli tehsil in Badayu district of Uttar Pradesh, the youth failed to provide a licence of the weapon.
In another case, a scrap dealer was forced to pay Rs 50,000 at gunpoint by an inter-state gang from nearby Punjab after they stopped his tractor-trailer containing industrial scrap at Malpur village on May 6. On March 24, a resident of Saini Majra village, was robbed of Rs 35,000 at gunpoint by three masked persons, who had entered his confectionery shop. In yet another case on March 2, the Nalagarh police arrested two youths for illegally possessing a .32 mm bore pistol. The duo was travelling in a car (HP12M-8283) and were arrested at Khera village and were identified as Luv Kumar (28) of Ratyod village and Prabhjeet Singh (32) of Handa Kundi village. As per the police probe, the weapon was to be used for some crime.
Nalagarh MLA Hardeep Bawa asked the police to thoroughly scrutinise the area and also review the gun licences as the cases of misuse of weapons in criminal activities have surfaced in the recent months.
Additional SP, Baddi, Ashok Verma says that the police are targeting the hideouts of migrants as well as jhuggis to confiscate illegal weapons. One such campaign carried out in the recent past had yielded good results and another such campaign has been initiated.
