The seized arms on Monday. (Express Photo)
Six persons, including two workers of Rifle Factory Ishapore, were arrested by Special Task Force (STF) of Kolkata Police on Monday for allegedly illegally selling arms to Maoists and criminals in Bihar. DC, STF, Murlidhar Sharma said out of the six accused, two are from Bihar, while the rest from Kolkata.
The accused were identified as Sushanta Basu (51), Sukhda Murmu (48) alias Munmun, Umesh Ray (21) alias Bhola Ray, Kartik Shaw (40) — all residents of Ichapur — Ajay Kumar Pandey (40) alias Guddu Pandit and Jaysankar Pandey (36), both from Bihar and are history-sheeters.
Umesh, Kartik, Ajay and Jaysankar were arrested from Babughat based on a tip-off, while Sushanta and Sukhda were caught from their homes, STF sources said. Sushanta and Sukhda worked as junior workers at the rifle factory.
The accused were booked under IPC sections 413 (habitually dealing in stolen property) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) and under sections of the Arms Act. Police also seized seven revolvers, one carbine and 10 rounds of ammunition from their possession.
About the modus operandi, sources in the police said that parts of arms used to be collected from the factory’s scrap unit. Then they were supplied to Bihar where the parts used to be assembled and then sold to Maoists and criminals, they said.
Sukhda and Sushanto were using Umesh and Kartick to smuggle out arms from the factory. They (Umesh and Kartick) would enter (the scrap unit) by climbing the factory wall, which had less security and then after collecting the parts they would leave the premises with the help of the two workers (of the factory). These workers used to get a minimum of
Rs 5,000 from Umesh and Kartick, said an STF source.
An STF official said Ajay was arrested by Bihar STF earlier. “He had been smuggling arms from the rifle factory since 2008,” said the official.
Kolkata Police said that the scrap wing from where the accused used to collects parts of arms did not have tight security. Police said they would soon be questioning the authorities of the factory regarding “security loopholes”.
Ordinance Factory Board, however, said that they are yet to get an official intimation from the STF about the arrests.
“Our security official from Rifle Factory Ishapore got in touch with Kolkata Police and got the news about the arrests. Then, I personally got in touch with the deputy commissioner of STF and he said an official intimation will be sent in due course,” PRO of Ordinance Factory Board Uddipan Mukherjee told The Indian Express.
“As far as the two workers are concerned, they are on pay roll and are on the post of Junior Works Manager (group B official). They are just above supervisory level. We already have security protocol in place. It is under the command of an Army officer generally of the rank of Colonel. Defense Services Corps look after the security of the ordinance factories across India. We have one company soldiers for the security of the factory. It is definitely a matter of concern but we do have our measures in place,” Mukherjee added.