More than 1,000 licence holders yet to deposit firearms in City

Weapons should be deposited with police till conclusion of polls

More than 1,000 firearms are yet to be deposited with the office of the City Police Commissioner ahead of the general elections though the deadline for surrendering the weapons ended on March 19.

According to the notification issued by the police commissioner, the owners of licensed arms should deposit them with the police authorities till the conclusion of elections.However, out of around 6,000 arms holders, nearly 5,000 have complied with the direction.

Police officials said that one more opportunity would be given for surrendering arms after which penal action would be initiated against defaulters.

 “A significant number of licence holders have already complied with the order and the rest will have to follow suit. But, the list of those who have not fallen in line includes many serving officers of paramilitary forces, bank employees, security agencies etc,” Kamal Pant, Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and Order), told Deccan Herald.

He said that some licence holders may be out of City or country.

However, the jurisdictional police would visit their houses to ensure they surrender the firearms, Pant added, hoping that all the weapons would be deposited with the police in two or three days.

Pant said that many licence holders were reluctant to deposit their weapons as they apprehended that they may not be well kept in police custody. Some perceive security threat and hence seek exemption from surrendering the arms. A committee comprising all senior police officials decides on the exemptions.

Last date lapsed

However, the last date for seeking exemption has lapsed already. The arms licence holders in the City have double barrel, single barrel, muzzle guns, pistols, revolvers of .22 calibre, .32 calibre, .25 calibre etc. A police official added that of late there had been an increase in the number of people seeking arms licence.

 Compared to other States including Delhi, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, few women have arms licence in Bangalore. Pant said that women constitute less than 20 pc of all the arms licence holders.