Bihar: STF seizes 15 pistols being smuggled from Munger to Bhojpur, three nabbed

PATNA: A team of special task force (STF), with the help of district police in Lakhisarai, arrested three alleged arms smugglers and seized 15 country-made semiautomatic pistols along with same count of magazines from their possession after intercepting a SUV near toll plaza under Town police station area in Lakhisarai on late Saturday night.
The arrested arms smugglers have been identified as Putput Goswami, Munna Gupta and Sheet Kumar, all natives of Piro in Bhojpur district.
STF sources said that Putput is a notorious arms smuggler and had been to jail earlier too on several occasions in illegal firearms smuggling cases.
They said that the pistols were kept inside a especially created compartment beneath the rear seat of the SUV for smuggling purposes.
When asked, Lakhisarai SP Sushil Kumar on Sunday said that the firearms consignment was picked up from a person at Wardha village under Mufassil police station area of Munger.
“The entire consignment was being smuggled to Bhojpur for suppling it to different criminal gangs. Police suspects that the arrested persons were involved in arms smugglers for several years,” he said.
SP Kumar said that they are gathering details about criminal antecedents of all the arrested accused persons.
“We have sought details from Bhojpur as well as Munger police to know who all had been to jail in the past and for how many times from these two places. Information on them is being gathered from other districts too,” he said.
Meanwhile, STF sources said that the person in Wardha from whom the trio had picked up the consignment, is a notorious arms manufacturer.
They said that the several firearms consignment seized from multiple locations in state recently while being smuggled were actually manufactured by him.
“The seizure of four country-made semiautomatic pistols, seven magazines and 199 live cartridges along with arresting of three arms smugglers from near Khagaria bus stand on February 3 which was being smuggled to Malda in West Bengal was also picked up from this Wardha based arms manufacturer,” a STF source said denying to disclose identity of the manufacturer.
They said STF would soon urge the state police headquarters to write to Enforcement Directorate against this Wardha based arms manufacturer for initiating action under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
It might be recalled that it was Wardha from where arms smugglers were running organised syndicate of suppling weapons like AK-47 assault rifles to criminals and Maoists after smuggling them out from ordnance factory in Jabalpur. The racket was busted in 2018 and more than 20 AK-47 assault rifles were seized. Case was took over for investigation by NIA.