Police on illegal weapons’ trail to check crime in City Beautiful

Amit Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 1

The Chandigarh police have nabbed a total of 59 persons in the past two years for illegally possessing weapons and have recovered 58 weapons, including 50 country-made pistols. There have been reports of use of illegal weapons in shootouts here in the recent past.

According to the statistics of 2018, the police arrested 22 persons for possessing 18 country-made pistols, one .32-bore revolver and one rifle. The police also recovered 124 cartridges and one empty bullet casing.

Similarly, the police had arrested a total of 32 persons in the past year and recovered 28 country-made pistols, a US-made pistol, one single-barrel gun, a double-barrel gun and a “dunali”, besides 139 cartridges and 39 empty cartridges. This year, the UT police have arrested five persons for illegally possessing weapons. The police have recovered four country-made pistols, a US-made pistol, a .32-bore revolver and 21 cartridges from those arrested.

The UT SSP, Nilambari Jagdale, said their focus was on cracking down on illegal weapons as these contributed to different categories of crime. “We have made significant recoveries of illicit arms and will continue the drive in future,” said the SSP.

Police officials said they were also trying to trace the source of illegal weapons and to whom they were being supplied. A majority of the crime involving weapons has witnessed use of country-made pistols.

On December 18 last year, two youths, Vineet Kumar and Ajay, alias Ajju, were shot dead at their rented accommodation in Sector 15. The country-made weapons were used to kill both students. The arrest of the accused had led to the recovery of country-made pistols. Similarly, a country-made pistol and a US-made pistol was used in the murder of Sonu Shah, who was shot dead by four assailants inside his office at Burail village, Sector 45, on September 28 last year. The assailants had pumped 10 bullets into Shah’s body.

A county-made weapon was used in the murder of Vishal Chhillar, a former student of DAV College, Sector 10, who was shot dead in a rented flat at Sector 49 on March 6, 2019.

There have been other incidents reported in the city during the recent past where country-made weapons were used by the criminals.

The police said Uttar Pradesh (UP) is a major source of country-made weapons where these are illegally manufactured. “The costlier ones are copy of genuine firearms,” said a police official. Police sources said lathe machines were used to manufacture such weapons. People manufacturing illegal arms use a low quality spring, barrel, ejector, firing pin, etc, and there is always uncertainty whether the weapon will fire.

Market of illegal arms

According to sources, while a 315-bore country-made “katta”, which is used one time, can be purchased for Rs2,000-Rs3,000, one can get a pistol for Rs25,000. A locally made AK 47 rifle is sold for about Rs1 lakh.

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