Delhi Police bust interstate illegal ammunition supply racket, seize 4500 live cartridges

NEW DELHI:  The Special Cell of Delhi Police busted an interstate illegal ammunition supply racket on Thursday with a big haul of 4,500 live cartridges in north Delhi. Six key members of this gang were arrested and booked under the Arms Act. They have been sent to police remand by Patiala House court. 

"This is the biggest haul of cartridges seized in Delhi," said DCP (Special Cell) Sanjeev Yadav.  The racket was arrested red handed during an operation conducted by a team of Special Cell (Northern Range) led by Inspector Vivekanand Pathak and Kuldeep Singh under the supervision of ACP Jasbir Singh. 

The accused have been identified as Ramesh Kumar (46), Dipanshu Mishra (35) Ikram (40), Akram (42), Manoj Kumar (39) and Amit Rao (33), the police said. Besides, the ammunition, one Hyundai and one Tata Manza Car used for supplying cartridges, mobile handsets and SIM cards used in activities have also been recovered by the police. 

"Special Cell has busted several interstate firearm syndicates in the past. Surveillance was mounted upon activities of illegal firearms and ammunition syndicates, during which a new syndicate was identified which was involved in pumping cartridges in Delhi/NCR areas from Haryana and UP besides other areas of the country," said DCP Yadav. He said, secret and discreet watch was kept upon activities of members of this syndicate. 

Yadav said the first arrest in the case was made on February 14. A trap was laid near Mukundpur flyover on Outer Ring Road where Ramesh arrived in a car and handed over a white plastic bag to Deepanshu. Both of them were arrested after a brief chase and 4,000 illegal cartridges were recovered from them.

The main source of supply of this syndicate Amit was arrested from Mansarovar Industrial Area in Jaipur on February 16. Following more raids on the next day, Ikram was arrested from Panipat and Akram from Karnal and 500 cartridges were recovered from his possession. Manoj was arrested from Panchkula, he added.