Inter-state arms smuggling racket busted, two held with 10 pistols
With the arrest of two persons, the State Special Operation Cell (SSOC), Amritsar, busted an inter-state illegal weapon smuggling module backed by USA-based handlers and recovered 10 .32 bore pistols smuggled from Madhya Pradesh from their possession.
Those arrested were identified as Satnam Singh, alias Prince, a resident of Buttar Kalan of Batala and his relative Manjit Singh of Bhagi Nangal in Batala. According to the police, USA-based Sunny Masih, aka Gulli, originally hailing from Batala was providing logistical assistance to them.
The police also seized 20 magazines apart from ammunition from their possession, said Gaurav Yadav, Director General of Police (DGP), Punjab, here on Sunday.
“Satnam was in touch with his USA-based handler Sunny Masih, alias Gulli, who is wanted in multiple cases by the Punjab Police in heroin smuggling. For his convenience, accused Satnam also involved his relative Manjit into drug peddling and transportation of illegal weapons,” the DGP said.
Investigations revealed that they were procuring illegal weapons from Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand on the directions of Masih and further supplying these to Punjab-based gangsters, the DGP said, while adding that further probe was on to establish backward and forward linkages to unearth the entire arms smuggling nexus.
Sukhminder Singh Mann, Assistant Inspector General (AIG), SSOC, Amritsar, said the SSOC received a tip-off that Sunny Masih, a native of Dhianpur in Batala (Gurdaspur), currently residing in the USA, was running an inter-state weapons smuggling module in Punjab with the help of his associates.
Working on the input, the SSOC launched an intelligence-based operation and arrested two members of this module after recovering a weapon consignment from their possession, he said.
“During questioning, Satnam revealed that Sunny Masih used to pay him courier charges on per delivery basis. He also revealed that around one month ago, he smuggled four weapons from the MP to Punjab for which he was paid Rs 10,000 and for the current delivery, Sunny had promised him to pay Rs 20,000,” the AIG said.
