Arms trafficker charge-sheeted in AK-47 rifles seizure case in Bihar

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday filed a supplementary charge sheet against an arms trafficker in a 2018 case related to the recovery of AK-47 assault rifles, with investigation revealing the involvement of certain serving and retired employees of the Central Ordnance Depot (COD) in the supply of weapons to smugglers.

The charge sheet was filed against Rajiv Kumar Singh alias 'Chunnu Singh', a resident of Tetar village of Gaya district, in a special court in Patna in Bihar under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, Arms Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, a spokesperson of the NIA said.

The spokesperson said the case relates to the recovery of three AK-47 rifles from the premises of Rizwana Begum in Munger district of Bihar in September 2018. The seizure was made based on the disclosure of another charge-sheeted accused, Shamsher Alam.

Initially, a case was registered at Muffasil police station in Bihar on September 7 against 26 people. It was later taken over by the NIA on October 5, 2018 for a thorough investigation.

The NIA had earlier charge-sheeted 14 people in the case, the spokesperson said.

The NIA said the investigation has revealed that certain serving and former employees of COD Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh had conspired with a group of arms smugglers and had stolen a large number of AK series rifles, their parts and self-loading rifles (SLRs) from there.

''The kingpin of the racket, Purshottam Lal Rajak, an ex-armorer of COD, had cannibalized serviceable parts from out-of-commission weapons and had manufactured functioning prohibited weapons such as AK-47," the spokesperson said.

The NIA said 22 such AK-47 rifles have been recovered so far.

''These weapons stolen out of COD Jabalpur were then supplied to arms smugglers from Munger, Bihar which were then further supplied to Naxals and criminals," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said Chunnu Singh is a close associate of Alam.

''He was an important link in the chain of supply of cannibalized weapons and used to receive the weapons from Alam and had supplied the same to Naxals and criminals in Bihar and Jharkhand," the spokesman said.

The NIA said further investigation in the case is underway.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)