Fake IDs used to get arms licence from Tarn Taran

PK Jaiswar

Amritsar, July 11

The city police have found around 20 suspected fake arms licences prepared by Amritsar city residents from Tarn Taran on bogus documents.

This came to light during a probe being carried out in the racket busted by the police on Wednesday. The racket was allegedly being operated by the District Manager of Sewa Kendra in Tarn Taran district. He was identified as Suraj Bhandari, a resident of Kiri Shahi village in Verowal.

Bhandari has been absconding since the Tarn Taran police and Amritsar city police nominated him in separate FIRs. A manhunt has been launched to nab him.

The city police have arrested eight persons including an employee of the Sewa Kendra in the case. It has recovered seven weapons along with six fake arms licences prepared from Sewa Kendra in Tarn Taran. Among those arrested are six Amritsar residents who got them prepared using fake identities of Tarn Taran.

“We are verifying the credentials of the Amritsar-based beneficiaries who got the licences prepared from there,” informed Dr Darpan Ahluwalia, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police, who has been supervising the investigations. They would be involved in the investigations in the coming days, he said.

Besides, the police have been contemplating a scrutiny of all gun houses in the city and checking of their records. Amritsar city has over 15,700 arms licensees.

Besides seven firearms, the police had also seized a laptop with details of forged documents along with a printer and scanner from the suspects.

Among those arrested are Harpal Singh, an employee of the Kendra, Baljit Singh, owner of a cyber cafe and photostat shop, Kanwardeep Singh, Abhay Kumar, Manpreet Singh, Rohit alias Lobhi, Harinder Singh and Ballu, all residents of Amritsar. The racket was busted following the interrogation of a person, Ballu alias Bablu of Anngarh, who was arrested on April 9 in an attempt to murder case.

The accused used to charge Rs 1.5 lakh per licence which included Rs 10,000 as commission for a photostat shop owner and Rs 20,000 as commission for a Sewa Kendra employee.

On Tuesday, Tarn Taran police had busted the racket with the arrest of three persons. The police had seized 24 fake arms licences from the accused, identified as Pawandeep Singh, Shamsher Singh and Gurmeet Singh. Apart from Suraj Bhandari, another suspect Raghav Kapoor of Jaspal Nagar, was absconding.