Punjab Police bust gang of weapon smugglers

In a major inter-state operation, the Punjab Police on Saturday busted a gang of Madhya Pradesh-based weapons smugglers who were supplying illegal arms and ammunition to gangsters in Punjab, and arrested two persons and seized a huge cache of arms.

The weapons seized include 12.32 bore country-made pistols and 15 magazines.

The gang apparently also has links with certain Punjab-based terrorists and is suspected of having supplied over two dozen .32 bore pistols to gangsters and criminals in the state during the last three months alone.

DGP Dinkar Gupta said the intelligence-led operation was carried out under the supervision of Dhruv Dahiya, SSP, Amritsar (Rural), and the suspects - Mahesh Selotia and Jaggu - were nabbed from their native villages in Khargone, Madhya Pradesh by a team led by DSP, Gurinder Nagra.


Gupta said the raids in Khargone were conducted after investigations into the recent seizure of four illegal .32 bore country-made pistols by the Amritsar Rural police revealed the involvement of the MP-based gang led by one Rahul.

The DGP said investigations conducted so far have revealed that this gang has been involved in smuggling several major weapons consignments for Punjab-based gangsters.

He said this gang was also the source of a weapons consignment of six .32 bore pistols that were intercepted and seized by the Patiala Police in September 2020.


Gupta said that possibilities of this gang having links with Punjab terrorists cannot be ruled out as investigations indicate that the kingpin Rahul was in contact with several gangsters and hardliners lodged in Punjab jails and had been actively supplying them illegal weapons.

Significantly, he was also in close contact with Akashdeep Singh, the prime accused in the drone module busted by the Punjab Police in 2019, who is presently in Amritsar Jail.

Gupta said that questioning of the arrested accused is still underway to unravel their complete network of contacts and their links with smugglers, gangsters and terrorists in Punjab as well as in other states. - IANS