Disc jockey among 3 held for arms trafficking

Three men, including a disc jockey and a wrestler were arrested along with 27 sophisticated semi-automatic pistols by the Delhi Police’s Special Cell in connection with their alleged involvement in illegal arms trafficking, officials said on Tuesday.

The accused — Yogesh Patel alias Nilesh: (22), Pankaj Kumar Bhardwaj (20) and Jitendra alias Jittu were arrested in two different operations by the Special Cell unit, they said.

The first operation was executed on December 3 after the New Delhi Range of Special Cell got a tip off about an arms trafficker Nilesh, a resident of Madhya Pradesh, would come at Delhi’s Sarai Kale Khan to deliver illicit arms and ammunition to criminals based in Delhi-NCR.

“Our team led by Inspectors Ravinder Kumar Tyagi and Rahul Kumar laid a trap around the specified spot along with the informer. In the evening, when the team spotted accused Nilesh in Sarai Kale Khan area, they surrounded him and apprehended him with a bag containing 12 pistols of .32 bore,” said Pramod Singh Kushwah, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell).

On questioning, his real name was revealed as Yogesh Patel who was a professional DJ by profession but in 2019, at a wedding function he met with an arms trafficker of Damoh, who lured him into supplying illicit firearms to earn easy money, he said.

Investigations revealed that accused Patel disclosed that he purchased pistols for ` 8-10 thousand rupees per piece and further sold it for `25,000 to `30,000 per piece to criminals based in Delhi NCR, the police said.