Three held with illegal firearms in Bihar's Lakhisarai

PATNA: A joint team of special task force (STF) and police intercepted an SUV near toll plaza under the Town police station area in Lakhisarai late on Saturday night and arrested three arms smugglers.
Police said 15 country-made semi-automatic pistols and 15 magazines were recovered from the possession of the arrested smugglers, who were identified as Putput Goswami, Munna Gupta and Sheet Kumar, all residents of Piro in Bhojpur district.
STF sources said Putput, a notorious arms smuggler, had been jailed on several occasions earlier. “The pistols were kept inside a specially-created compartment beneath the rear seat of the SUV,” they added.
Lakhisarai SP Sushil Kumar said the smugglers had picked up the consignment from a person at Wardha village under the Mufassil police station area in Munger. “The consignment was being smuggled to Bhojpur. The seized arms were supposed to be supplied to different criminal gangs. We are in touch with Bhojpur and Munger police to identify others involved in arms racket,” he added.
STF sources said the person from whom the trio had picked up the consignment is an arms manufacturer. “The four country-made semiautomatic pistols, seven magazines and 199 live cartridges, which were seized in Khagaria on February 3, were also picked up from the same person,” they added.
Sources said the STF would urge the state police headquarters to write to Enforcement Directorate, seeking action under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against this Wardha-based arms manufacturer.
It was from Wardha that arms smugglers were running organised syndicate of supplying weapons, including AK-47 assault rifles, to criminals and Maoists after procuring them from ordnance factory in Jabalpur. The racket was busted in 2018 and more than 20 AK-47 assault rifles were seized. The case was later taken up for probe by National Investigation Agency.