KOCHI: A day after arresting 19 Kashmiris working as private armed guards in a Kochi-based firm for the possession of fake arms licences, the police have launched a probe into the activities of a Mumbai-based manpower recruitment agency that provides human resources from Kashmir to private security agencies across the state.
The probe into the arrest of the 19 residents of Rajouri district in Jammu and Kashmir revealed that the Mumbai agency had sent similar recruits to firms in Thrissur, Kannur, Kozhikode and Kasaragod.
Intelligence agencies sense a larger plot behind the recruitment of Kashmir residents in Kerala. They suspect their recruitment is linked to a major fake arms licence scam busted by the CBI in Jammu and Kashmir July this year. A senior intelligence officer said the arrested persons might be among the persons who possess fake arms licences – 2.78 lakh licences in total – issued by a few senior government officials of J&K involved in the scam. Kalamassery Inspector of Police P R Santhosh said a detailed probe has been launched and the police will seek the custody of the arrested Kashmiris for interrogation.
Officials said the arrested persons had reached Kerala in batches between 2016 and 2020. It was the arrest of five Kashmir residents in Thiruvananthapuram a few days ago for possessing fake arms licence that led to the raid at the office of the security agency in Kochi and the arrest of the 19 Rajouri residents.
All the arrested were employed as armed guards of the security agency Cisco which is involved in cash logistics for banks. Officials said though all the arrested belong to Rajouri, they suspect the presence of residents of Baramulla, Jammu, Srinagar, Udhampur and Anantnag areas in Kerala. A statement issued by the CBI after the raids in Jammu and Kashmir this year had said the probe had found the role of certain gun dealers in the scam which came to light after the Rajasthan Police in 2017-18 found that a lot of people possessed gun licences issued by authorities in various districts of Jammu and Kashmir.