An illegal firearms manufacturing unit, which produced four to five illicit guns daily and supplied nearly 1,000 to criminals in Delhi and neighboring states in a year, has been dismantled in a residential settlement in Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh by Delhi Police informed senior police officers in the city. of development said Saturday.
One of the alleged illicit firearms makers was arrested at the factory with 19 prepared and semi-finished guns, excluding the raw materials and tools used in the manufacture of these weapons, they said .
The illegal firearms factory has been dismantled following the interrogation of a notorious gunman, Shakil alias Sherni, who was arrested on Monday night following a shootout with a state- Special Major of the Rohini Northern Outer District Police in Delhi. Police seized 14 pistols and 38 cartridges from Shakil. The seized batch of weapons and ammunition was to be handed over to members of a gang led by fugitive gangster Kapil Sangwan alias Nandu and another gang named “Sisodia gang”, said the deputy police commissioner (outside-north) Brijendra Kumar Yadav.
DCP Yadav said the special personnel team interviewed Shakil to determine the source from where he obtained the illegal weapons. Shakil revealed that he purchased the guns from an illegal manufacturing unit in Aligarh. The police team secured Shakil’s pre-trial detention and accompanied him to a store in a residential area of SaraiMan Singh near Maya Chowk in Aligarh. The store was raided and Ravi Mahor was caught making illegal firearms. Another builder manages to escape.
“Several raw materials used in the manufacture of firearms have been recovered, such as barrels, triggers, gun bodies as well as a lathe, bits used in the machine and other equipment have been recovered. In addition, 9 unfinished firearms and 10 finished pistols manufactured in the country were also recovered,” DCP Yadav said.
A police officer who was part of the operation said the gun manufacturing unit had been operating in the residential settlement for a few years. The illegal activity took place in a secret way, as the workshop actually received the design of a workshop related to scrap metal and lathe machines.
“Arrested man Ravi Mahor is also involved in a rape case. His uncle Mukesh was also present at the store at the time of the raid. But he managed to escape. Mahor revealed that four to five pistols were produced daily. On average, they produced 1,000 illicit firearms and sold them to criminals in Delhi and other states through arms dealers like Shakil,” an investigator said.
Police said they were trying to identify the person who ran the manufacturing unit. They were also trying to establish whether any slain Munger arms manufacturers from Bihar and West Bengal were employed there.
