Man who supplied 700 arms to gangs held

NEW DELHI: A Mathura resident, who supplied over 700 pistols to city criminals in the last two years, was arrested from south Delhi on Sunday afternoon. Police said Khazan Singh, 42, was arrested from outside NAFED building in Ashram where he had come to deliver a cache of arms to his contacts.

The police have seized 15 pistols, 2 revolvers and 10 spare magazines from Singh’s possession.

Deputy commissioner of police (special cell) Pramod Kushwah said the operation was part of the police’s drive against illegal gun suppliers in Delhi. The officer said police found that most pistols used by Delhi’s criminals were smuggled from Khargone and Burhanpur in Madhya Pradesh and Munger, Bihar.

“We received information about a man who will meet his contact outside the NAFED building on Sunday at around 3.30-4.30 pm. At around 4 pm, our officers spotted a suspicious man going towards DND flyover. Our team arrested him from the spot,” said DCP Kushwah. Singh confessed he had fixed a meeting with his contact, who had promised to buy the pistols. An officer, who interrogated Singh said, “Unlike other couriers, Singh dealt directly with a man in Khandwa who manufactures illegal weapons. He had come in touch with the manufacturer through a contact. He confessed that he has sold over 700 sophisticated pistols to different gangs in Delhi.”

Singh reportedly confessed that he made a profit of around ₹5,000 to ₹15,000 by selling one pistol, depending on the make. Singh said he sold illegal sophisticated replica of 9 MM, Glock and many other types of small arms.

He bought the pistol at around ₹10,000 and sold it at twice the rate. Police said he has been in the business of smuggling arms for more than 25 years.

In 1997, he was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police for arms smuggling. The Uttar Pradesh police have also declared him a ‘bad character’. A bad character in police record is one, who has many criminal cases and must be monitored by local police so that he or she does not indulge in any illegal activities. Earlier this year, police had arrested a 26-year-old and recovered an automatic carbine, among 30 other pistols from his possession. Last year, police had seized over 1200 illegal pistols and other types of guns from criminals across the city. There was a steep increase in the recovery of such illegal firearms compared to 2016 when 738 such weapons were recovered.