On August 19, Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Vikas Prabhakar was gunned down inside his shop in Nangal in the Rupnagar district. A few days later, a joint team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the special cell of Delhi Police arrested Dharmender Kumar, alias Kunal, 22, from Ludhiana for procuring illegal arms from Madhya Pradesh and supplying them to shooters who committed the crime.
Kumar’s interrogation revealed that he was working on the directions of foreign-based Khalistani terrorist Harwinder Kumar, alias Sonu, belonging to Babbar Khalsa International (BKI).
A month later, Amritsar police dismantled an interstate illegal weapons smuggling module linked to USA-based Dilpreet Singh with the arrest of seven operatives and recovered 12 pistols also manufactured in MP.
On November 14, Jalandhar rural police arrested 10 criminals, including members of a UK-based extortion syndicate, and recovered seven Madhya Pradesh-made pistols.
These are not isolated incidents that underscore the widespread and easy availability of MP-made illegal firearms making their way into the hands of the gangsters in Punjab.
Curbing the menace of illegal weapon smuggling has become a daunting task for Punjab Police which has seized over 1,300 MP-made pistols in the past two years.
The availability of these weapons has made it alarmingly easy for gangsters and also for people with no criminal background to procure firearms which are priced affordably between ₹20,000 and ₹1 lakh. Similar foreign-made pistols are available in the market for much higher rates ranging from ₹1.5 lakh to ₹2.5 lakh.
Punjab police probes in various cases have zeroed down on areas like Khargone, Khandwa, Barwani, Burhanpur and Dhar as the hotbed of illegal arms manufacturing in Madhya Pradesh.
Police claim that skilled workers, often from a particular ironsmith community, have been making high-quality pistols for generations.
“The tribe that manufactures these pistols can produce first copies of any sophisticated weapon,” said an inspector-rank official involved in solving weapon-related operations in Madhya Pradesh.
A confessional statement of an accused, Taqdir Singh, who hails from Sangnur village of Khargon district and specialises in manufacturing .32-bore pistols, accessed by Hindustan Times, reveals that the community manufacturers arms individually, using the scrap iron.
“We procure all material used for manufacturing a pistol from scrap. We use pipes of cycle seats to mould a magazine. The spring used in the magazine is made from the iron wires obtained from the tyres of cars. The body of the pistol is made from normal iron sheets,” said the accused who was arrested by Khanna police in February last year with eight pistols.
“We are now seeing a trend in which even a snatcher has been found to be in possession of an MP-made pistol pointing to easy availability of such weapons in the state. We are making efforts to break the supply chain but till the manufacturing of such weapons doesn’t stop in MP, the demand in Punjab will continue,” said an ADGP-rank official, requesting anonymity.
Well-oiled supply chain
Various police probes have found that manufacturers produce arms and hand them to middlemen or stockists. The middlemen then connect the suppliers to end-users, earning between ₹20,000 and ₹50,000 per weapon as commission, based on quality.
“Individuals with no prior criminal history are seeking these weapons further complicating law enforcement efforts. There have been instances where middlemen deliver weapons one by one as it is easy to conceal and smuggle it from MP,” said Harkamalpreet Singh Khakh, SSP-Jalandhar Rural, whose team this month dismantled four modules involved in this trade.
Bathinda SSP Amneet Kaundal, who has a track record of making the highest recovery of illegal pistols when she was posted as Khanna SSP, says the conduits who supply pistols from local suppliers from MP often rope in youth with no criminal backgrounds.
“In many cases, our investigation revealed that youths who brought pistols from MP were being handled by foreign-based criminals with a promise of taking them to the US using donkey routes. They bring pistols from MP and are then given tasks of target killings. In some cases, youth were being lured using social media,” said Kaundal.
Senior police officials, pleading anonymity, revealed that the MP-made pistols are easy to operate and not prone to defects.
Another senior police official, posted as SSP, disclosed that people with no criminal background are also seeking MP-made pistols. “In many instances, it was found that those possessing licensed revolver, have also bought these pistols to use it in celebratory firing or hunting,” he said.
Local resistance
Attempts to apprehend manufacturers are often foiled by a lack of cooperation from the MP Police, a Punjab Police official alleged.
“During a 15-day operation in Madhya Pradesh, our presence was leaked to the local community, making arrests impossible,” revealed an officer, who was part of the Punjab police operation in MP to arrest the manufacturers who supplied weapons to gangsters for committing a crime in Bhogpur town in Punjab.
“Only once or twice, the police were able to arrest the manufacturers. In most of the modules busted by Punjab police, those arrested include suppliers, conduits or the gangsters, while manufacturers have remained largely untouched,” he added.
GFX
Arms trafficking menace
Over 100 modules of MP-based arms suppliers busted
More than 1,300 illegal weapons recovered in two years
More than 400 persons arrested
Major weapon recoveries
September 2: Two persons hailing from Khargon and Burhanpur districts in MP, held with 55 pistols by SSOC, Amritsar
September 7: 25 more pistols recovered by SSOC-Amritsar; 2 manufacturers held
January 27: SSOC-Fazilka arrests two Rajasthan natives with 8 pistols
August 5: CI-Jalandhar busts module with the arrest of two persons, 17 pistols recovered.
October 22: SSOC arrests two persons and seizes 11 pistols along with magazines and cartridges
December 12: Amritsar Police arrested one person with 13 pistols.
February 29: Amritsar Police busted a narco smuggling cartel; seize 5kg heroin, five pistols.
March 31: SSOC-Mohali arrests four persons with nine pistols
