JOIN USGuns seized in daring op
A daring adventure across many states led the Bengaluru police to bust a gun-running racket and arrest eight members of a gang.
They seized 13 guns from them, all of them replicas of legally manufactured guns.
This is the biggest arms recovery this past year. Dr Sanjeev Patil, DCP, West Division, says his men discovered how a network brings weapons from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh and sells them in Karnataka.
Fayazulla Khan, now lodged in jail, led the police to some members of the gang.
“We got information about illegal weapons trade at Konark Residency Lodge on Avenue Road, near City Market. Our men posed as customers and met one Kadheer Khan who showed them two pistols, for which he quoted Rs 1.10 lakh each,” Patil says.
The policemen told Kadheer Khan they wanted more than just two. “In an operation that lasted a month, our inspectors were able to nab them,” says Patil.
“These guns used to cost Rs 50,000 before Covid, but now they are going for Rs 1.2 lakh a piece. The original weapons cost Rs 2 lakh to Rs 3 lakh,” Patil told Metrolife. In custody now are Kadheer Khan (32) from Karnataka, Fayazulla Khan (31) and Vinay from Tamil Nadu, Parag Kumar (39) from Uttar Pradesh, Shanawaz Ansari (29) from Gujarat, and Naseer Sheikh (50), and Salman Khan (28) and Fakhruddin (37) from Madhya Pradesh.
Who uses them?
A senior officer in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) says the guns are used to threaten business rivals, for kidnapping, or as a status symbol.
Businessmen, real estate developers and VIPs who fear for their lives carry these weapons. “They may not use a gun, but they carry it around to create fear,” he explains.
City Police Commissioner Kamal Pant told Metrolife the operation was bold, and could have cost the officers their lives. “They went into the interior parts of Ghaziabad and Muzaffarnagar and camped there for two months. They could have been killed if their identities were found out,” says Pant.
It is almost impossible to get a gun licence in north India, but here, it is relatively easy, he says. “But who would pay money and buy an original weapon that is costly? That’s why the illegal weapon market thrives. And it leaves behind no documentation,” he says.
In UP, goons and criminals flaunt their weapons, but here, you can’t carry a weapon so easily, Pant says.
The guns are not crude and hand-made like country pistols. In fact, they are machine-made and closely resemble the guns they are imitating, another officer says.
‘We grew our hair, and hung out with them’
Inspector who led the operation says the lives of the undercover agents were often in jeopardy.
B G Kumaraswamy, police inspector, City Market, led the risky operation to nab eight gun runners.
“It took us two months to plan and execute the whole operation. We not only studied the gang’s history, but also watched them closely,” Kumaraswamy told Metrolife.
The policemen worked towards changing their appearance. “We didn’t get a haircut and grew a beard to appear every inch like one of them,” he says.
Through Fayazulla Khan, the main accused, the police got enough leads to the next few levels. “We first set a decoy for Kadheer Khan, pretending to be customers. Initially, we deposited Rs 30,000 in his account to win his trust and confidence,” he says.
The sleuths met more dealers and were taken to places that they had never imagined were linked with the arms trade.
“We lived with them, ate their meals and spoke their language—all in an effort to understand their reach and network,” he says.
The police travelled to UP, MP, and Gujarat.
“In the interiors of Muzaffarnagar, there was this one time when they wanted to show us a demonstration. They took us to a deserted building in the heart of the city and fired in the air. At this point, we feared for our lives, but we held our ground and played along. We eventually set traps using sign language and communicating in codes,” he reveals.
Kumaraswamy says that the network runs deep and has many tiers. “No one gives any leads. There were times we thought we would not return alive. They are ruthless,” he says.
He asked for 50 guns and the arms dealers were willing to procure them for him. “They said once the cash was ready, they would smuggle the guns in big trucks transporting inter-state goods,” says Kumaraswamy.
The guns are assembled somewhere in Bihar, Rajasthan and West Bengal, but the exact location of the factories is hard to trace, he
says.