Man Held With Two Firearms In Crackdown On Illegal Arms Trade
Police suspect weapons were procured from Bihar’s Munger; accused linked to five other Arms Act cases
Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Commissionerate Police on Friday arrested a suspected arms trafficker and seized two semi-automatic firearms, eight rounds of live ammunition and an SUV during a special operation on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar, exposing a possible inter-state link in the illegal firearms trade.
The arrest was made by the Special Crime Unit following intelligence inputs about the suspected transportation of firearms to the Balipatna area. The accused, identified as Biswajit Behera alias Kalia, is a resident of Noda village under Gobindpur police station limits in Cuttack district.
Apart from the firearms and ammunition, police seized two mobile phones and Rs 510 in cash from his possession.
Preliminary investigations revealed that Behera is allegedly involved in five other criminal cases, all registered under the Arms Act, said Anup Kumar Kanungo, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Special Crime Unit.
Police suspect that the firearms were procured from Munger district in Bihar, a region that has figured in investigations into illegal arms supply networks. However, investigators are yet to establish the precise source of the seized weapons or identify the persons involved in their procurement and transportation.
“Based on specific intelligence inputs, we suspect that the accused procured the firearms from Munger district in Bihar. He has claimed that he works as a sand supplier and had kept the weapons for his personal safety,” Kanungo told reporters.
The accused also claimed to be engaged in sand supply activities in the Balipatna area. Police were examining the veracity of his claims and trying to ascertain why he was allegedly transporting firearms.
Investigators had not yet established whether Behera was acting as a link in a larger arms trafficking network or was directly involved in a firearms transaction.
The Special Crime Unit was probing the source of the weapons, the intended recipients and the possible involvement of other persons in the suspected inter-state supply chain. Further investigation was underway.
