A team of Haryana police special task force (STF) seized a consignment of 25000 live cartridges that was being smuggled to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and arrested five suspects from two cars near Rohad toll plaza on Bahadurgarh-Rohtak highway in Jhajjar on Tuesday.
All five are residents of different localities in Uttar Pradesh’s Budaun. The arrested suspects, Saras Kumar and Laltu Kumar of Muzaffarpur and Chandan Tiwari of Siwan in Bihar, had disclosed their links with Munna. During the investigation, police found that Laltu was in direct contact with Munna and had procured the ammunition from him, who was in further touch with Vijay in Sirsa.
The arrested suspects were Afifuddin alias Munna Khan, 49, Asim Rais, 33, Sablu Khan, 32, Arbaz Ali, 27 and Zeenat, 33. Waseem Akram, superintendent of police, Haryana STF, said that 24400 cartridges of 7.65mm (.32 bore) used in regular small handguns and .315 bore used in rifles were seized from a Tata Harrier, while another batch of 600 cartridges (.315 bore) were seized from a Hyundai Aura. The operation followed the arrest of three suspects by Bihar police STF in Bhojpur district on Monday, where 19200 live cartridges were recovered.
Eight mobile phones and two cars were also seized from them, STF officials said. STF said Vijay has also been arrested and was quizzed to ascertain his role in the interstate smuggling network, which is suspected to be running for the last three years. Shamsher Dahiya, deputy superintendent of police, STF, said the entire consignment was manufactured in an ammunition factory in Pune’s Khadki, as the marking ‘KF’ was engraved on all the cartridges. “The two cars were intercepted near a roadside eatery, Triveni Dhaba, which is located right opposite the toll plaza after we had received a tip-off from Bihar police STF,” he added. The cartridges were to be smuggled to Badaun and then to Bihar from Sirsa, officials said, adding that the seizure was made following a tip-off from Bihar police STF about an interstate ammunition smuggling network.
