Illegal arms trafficking case: Another held

Kolkata: The Special Task Force (STF) of Bengal Police made another arrest on Monday in connection with an illegal arms and ammunition trafficking racket. Shantanu Sarkar, an employee of a century-old arms store in Kolkata’s BBD Bag area, was arrested from Champahati in South 24-Parganas.

On Friday, the STF had busted a racket involving the illegal sale of firearms and ammunition through a licensed shop. The operation included raids at various locations in Jibantala (South 24-Parganas) and Minakhan (North 24-Parganas). By Sunday, a total of five individuals had been arrested, including an employee of the Kolkata-based firearms shop.

During the Friday raids, police arrested four suspects, identified as Ashik Iqbal Gazi (alias Bappa Gazi) from Hasnabad, Haji Rasid Molla from Jibantala, Abdul Selim Gaji (alias Bablu) from Hasnabad and Jayanta Dutta from Santipur, Nadia. Authorities seized 190 factory-produced 7.65mm calibre live cartridges, nine 12-bore cartridges, and a double-barrelled gun made by the Indian Ordnance Factory (IOF).

On Sunday, another person, identified as Faruk Mallick, was arrested from Haroa in North 24-Parganas in connection with the case. Police seized a double-barrelled gun and four rounds of 12-bore ammunition from him. STF officials stated that the investigation revealed the racket’s involvement in supplying ordnance-made pistol cartridges from the licensed firearms shop to

criminals. Sources said that among the previous arrestees, Dutta, an employee of the firearms shop, provided crucial information during interrogation, leading to Sarkar’s arrest and bringing the total number of arrests to six.