Fake arms licence racket busted, Tarn Taran Sewa Kendra staffer among 8 held

PK Jaiswar

Amritsar, July 10

The police today claimed to have busted a fake arms licence racket operating from the Tarn Taran Sewa Kendra and arrested eight persons, including one of its employees.

The police seized six fake arm licences, Aadhaar cards, seven pistols, revolvers, a double-barrel rifle and a laptop with details of forged documents. They also seized a printer and scanner from the suspects. The development came a day after a similar racket was busted by the Tarn Taran police on Tuesday.

Had charged Rs 1.5L

• The accused used to charge Rs 1.5 lakh per licence which included Rs 10,000 as commission for a photostat shop owner and Rs 10,000-Rs 20,000 as commission for a Sewa Kendra employee
• The development came a day after a similar racket was busted by the Tarn Taran police on Tuesday

District manager of the Sewa Kendra Suraj Bhandari, who is the prime suspect in both cases, is absconding.

Harpal Singh, another employee of the kendra, and Baljit Singh, owner of a cyber cafe and photostat shop, were among those arrested. Baljit used to tamper with the identities to create fake documents.

Among others arrested are six licensees who used fake documents, including Aadhaar card, to show themselves as residents of Tarn Taran to get fake licences issued.

They are Kanwardeep Singh, Abhay Kumar, Manpreet Singh, Rohit, alias Lobhi, Harinder Singh and Ballu, all residents of Amritsar.

The racket was busted following the interrogation of a person Ballu, alias Bablu, of Anngarh, who was arrested on April 9 in an attempted murder case. He disclosed that he and Kanwardeep owned fake licensed weapons. During verification, it was found that these were issued from the Deputy Commissioner’s Office, Tarn Taran, but it was not reflected in the official record.

Ranjit Singh Dhillon, Police Commissioner, said a case was registered on June 11 while five fake arms licensees — Abhay of Sultanwind, Manpreet of Amritsar, Kanwardeep and Rohit of Amritsar, all shown as residents of Tarn Taran, were arrested on June 12, while, Harinder, a resident of Sadar Tarn Taran, was nabbed on July 2.

The accused used to charge Rs 1.5 lakh per licence which included Rs 10,000 as commission for a photostat shop owner and Rs 20,000 as commission for a Sewa Kendra employee.

On Tuesday, the Tarn Taran police seized 24 fake arms licences and arrested three persons — Pawandeep Singh, Shamsher Singh and Gurmeet Singh — in the case while Raghav Kapoor of Jaspal Nagar and Suraj Bhandari are absconding.