Two MP men held with cache of illegal weapons

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 9

The Punjab Police today claimed to have busted a gang involved in the supply of country-made weapons to criminal elements, including gangsters and alleged terrorists, in the state. Two Madhya Pradesh residents have been arrested in this regard.

As many as 12 country-made pistols with 15 magazines along with a cache of ammunition was recovered from their possession.

The gang is suspected to have supplied 24 pistols (.32 calibre) to gangsters and criminals over the past three months. Those arrested have been identified as Mahesh Selotia and Jaggu, both natives of Khargone village in MP. They were nabbed by an Amritsar (Rural) police team, headed by DSP (Detective) Gurinderpal Singh Nagra, during an operation in MP.

DGP Dinkar Gupta said the police recently seized four illegal .32-calibre weapons from different individuals and it was found they had procured these from Rahul, who allegedly had links with gangsters and hardliners lodged in Punjab jails.

“The gang was also the source of a consignment of six .32-calibre pistols that was intercepted and seized by the Patiala police in September,” he said.

“The possibility of the gang having links with Punjab terrorists cannot be ruled out as investigations indicate the kingpin, Rahul, was in contact with several gangsters and hardliners lodged in Punjab jails,” said the DGP.

Rahul was also in touch with Akashdeep Singh, the prime accused in the drone module bust by the Punjab Police in 2019. He is presently lodged in the Amritsar jail.

Besides, the name of Rahul’s associate Gopal Singh Sikligar of Satipurain Khargone also figured during their interrogation. He said names of both Rahul and Gopal had been included in the FIR registered by the Gharinda police in Amritsar (Rural) area.