26-year-old arms supplier held with 14 automatic pistols

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police on Wednesday arrested a 26-yearold arms supplier who has allegedly delivered over a hundred illegally manufactured firearms to criminals in the National Capital Region in the past one year.

The arrested person, Iqbal, a Mathura resident, was reportedly acting as a courier between the manufacturers based in remote forested areas along the Madhya Pradesh-maharashtra border and the gangsters living in Delhi and neighbouring towns, said deputy commissioner of police (south) Romil Baaniya.

“During an inter-state coordi- nation meeting in Wednesday, inputs on manufacturing of illegal arms in Khargoan and Sendhwa of District Indore in Madhya Pradesh and bordering Maharashtra was shared and we had formed teams to keep a check on the inflow of weapons in the south Delhi district. The team received a specific tip-off on Monday, which led to Iqbal’s arrest,” said Baaniya.

Iqbal was arrested near Batra Hospital on Mehrauli Badarpur Road on Monday and 14 sophisticated automatic pistols have been seized from Iqbal, Baaniya added. “We laid a trap and when he reached there, he was overpowered by the raiding team,” he said.

During interrogation, Iqbal purportedly revealed the name of one Mufeed who introduced him to the gun trade. “It was Mufeed who had sent Iqbal to MP to collect the consignment and bring it to Delhi where he had to hand it over to a person. The name of the receiver in Delhi was not shared with Iqbal,” said Baaniya.

Iqbal disclosed that the average price of each weapon ranges between ₹30,000 and ₹50,000 and for each weapon that he delivered, he would get ₹1,000.

He further disclosed that he indulged in supply of illegal arms/ pistols in Delhi-ncr for at least eight to 10 times to criminal gangs in Delhi and NCR making the procurements from Sendhwa and Khargone.