Arms smuggling ring busted in Delhi, one held

He sourced arms and ammunition from Madhya Pradesh and further smuggled them in Delhi NCR, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh West, they said.Police said Kasim has already supplied more than 500 firearms in Delhi NCR in the last three years.Deputy Commissioner of Police Special Cell Jasmeet Singh said the team got information about arms trafficking syndicate being operated in Delhi NCR by Kasim in association with his associates.Manual surveillance was mounted to develop the information about him and other members of this syndicate.

The Delhi Police has busted an interstate firearms syndicate and arrested a 60-year-old arms smuggler with 10 sophisticated pistols and 20 live cartridges, officials said on Monday.

The accused, Kasim Ali, is a resident of Hamirpur in Uttar Pradesh. He sourced arms and ammunition from Madhya Pradesh and further smuggled them in Delhi NCR, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh West, they said.

Police said Kasim has already supplied more than 500 firearms in Delhi NCR in the last three years.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Jasmeet Singh said the team got information about arms trafficking syndicate being operated in Delhi NCR by Kasim in association with his associates.

Manual surveillance was mounted to develop the information about him and other members of this syndicate. Secret sources were deployed to gather information in this regard.

The accused was arrested on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday at MB Road near Pul Prahladpur here, he said.

''He has been indulging in firearms trafficking in Delhi NCR, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh West for the last about 15 years and used to get arms and ammunition from the manufacturers of Sendwa in Badwani district of Madhya Pradesh,'' Singh added.

During interrogation, Kasim disclosed that he had received the cache of recovered pistols and cartridges from an arms manufacturer-cum-supplier of Badwani district.

Initially, Kasim had worked as a carrier for an arms trafficker of Uttar Pradesh for about five years but subsequently he developed his own network for trafficking, the DCP said.

''He used to get a pistol from Madhya Pradesh at lower price and further sold it at higher price to the gangsters and hardcore criminals in Delhi NCR, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana,'' he said.

A case under section 25(8) of Arms (Amendment) Act, 2019 was registered at Special Cell in this regard. In this section, there is a provision of minimum sentence of 10 years and it can be extended up to life imprisonment and also punishable with fine, police said.

Kasim has disclosed to have been previously arrested in five cases of arms smuggling and in one of narcotic drugs smuggling in Delhi NCR and Uttar Pradesh, police said, adding efforts to trace and arrest the backward and forward linkages of his syndicate are being made.