Cuttack: In a major achievement, the Cuttack Police busted a gun syndicate that was involved in supplying arms to criminals in Cuttack and adjoining districts in Odisha.
The arrested arms syndicate kingpin has been identified as Golden Singh of Munger district in Bihar. His associate Wasim Khan was also arrested and three illegal guns and three firearms were seized from their possession.
Addressing a press meet on Sunday, Cuttack DCP Kanwar Vishal Singh said that Jagatpur police in Cuttack received information on March 10 regarding the possession of firearms and ammunition by a veteran criminal and arms dealer named Babua alias Prakash Behera. Thereafter, police raiding teams of Jagatpur and members of Special Squad, Cuttack, acted upon the information, which led to the busting of an inter-state arms syndicate.
At first, Babua was apprehended and a 9 mm pistol and three live ammunition were seized from his possession. Thereafter other veteran arms dealers and criminals namely Pintu alias Pyari Mohan Das and Mihir Kumar Ray of Tirtol were arrested and three more firearms and ammunitions were recovered from them, said DCP Singh.
On March 17, another veteran arms dealer Pinku alias Priyabrata Samal, a resident of Govindaprasad police limits in Dhenkanal district, was arrested and another firearm was recovered from him. During sustained interrogation of all the accused, it was ascertained that there was a clandestine arms and ammunition deal with its genesis in the Munger and Jamui districts of Bihar.
Based on these revelations, a team of Jagatpur police station and special squad under the leadership of SI Sunil Yadav of Special Squad was deputed to Bihar. Yadav visited various places in Bihar and took the assistance of Bihar STF and other local police personnel. During subsequent raids, Golden Singh, a veteran arms dealer of Bihar, was arrested. During interrogation, it was ascertained that Golden Singh was associated with many criminals in Cuttack, Khurda, Jagatsinghpur, and Jharsuguda districts in Odisha and supplied arms to them on different occasions.
Acting on the revelations, Jagatpur IIC conducted ra aid in Dhenkanal and recovered two arms from the house of one veteran criminal. As raids are still on, the name of another accused person has been withheld.
Singh said that preliminary interrogation revealed that Wasim Khan used to procure weapons from Golden Singh.
