The Tricity residents were given an option to deposit their weapons either with nearby authorised gun houses or with the area police stations.Mohali has the highest number of licenced weapon holders than Panchkula and Chandigarh, revealed the concerned authority to Chandigarh Newsline. 8,200 weapons have been registered with Mohali administration, while 6,400 weapons are registered with Chandigarh’s authorities and 3,400 weapons are in possession of Panchkula residents.
Meanwhile, since the code of conduct came into force in view of upcoming Lok Sabha elections, out of 16,755 licenced weapons, 11,215 have been deposited by Tricity residents with concerning district police authorities so far. The code of conduct was imposed on March 10.
The recent murder of Dr Neha Shoree with a licensed .32bore revolver by a Morinda resident, Balwinder Singh, on March 29, has brought this exercise to the spotlight. Later, Balwinder also died due to bullet injuries, received from firing from his own weapon.
Figures accessed from the concerning authorities say, “Out of 6,400 weapons, 2,000 were deposited by Chandigarh residents with UT Police. Out of 2155 weapons, 1184 were deposited by Panchkula residents. In Mohali, 7,515 weapons out of 8,200 were deposited with district police.
Weapons submitted in Chandigarh and Panchkula were received till April 6. While, weapons could be submitted to the Mohali police till March 31.”
The Tricity residents were given an option to deposit their weapons either with nearby authorised gun houses or with the area police stations. There are three gun houses in Panchkula, six in Chandigarh and around seven in Mohali. A police officer privy to this process in Chandigarh said, “These weapons included .32bore revolver, 9mm pistol, 12 bore double barrel guns etc.”
SSP (UT) Nilambri Vijay Jagdale said, “In fact, we have started appealing the arm licence holders to deposit their weapons before code of conduct comes in force. As per the rules, weapons being used by security guards attached with banks, currency handlers, jewellers are exempted to be deposit. The process to verify licensed weapons, used by guards attached with banks, jewellers etc., is already on.”
Meanwhile, SSP, Mohali Harcharan Singh Bhullar said, “95 per cent of the licenced weapons in district were deposited by licence holders. We are in the process to collect all licensed weapon, except weapons being used by security guards.”
DCP Panchkula, Kamaldeep Goyal, said, “In Panchkula, some of the licence holders possessed more than one weapon. We are sending updates of weapons received every day to high ups and this report is being forwarded to the Election Commission in Delhi regularly.”
