Chandigarh, Oct 4 (IANS) In a major breakthrough, Amritsar Rural Police has dismantled an illegal arms and explosives supply network with the arrest of an individual and recovered one AK-47 assault rifle along with a magazine and nine cartridges, and two hand grenades from his possession, Punjab’s Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav said on Sunday.
The arrested accused has been identified as Navjot Singh, 28, a truck driver by profession and a resident of Cheema in Tarn Taran.
Apart from recovering arms and explosives, police teams have also impounded his motorcycle, which was used for transporting the consignment.
DGP Yadav said that preliminary investigation has revealed that the accused was allegedly linked to foreign-based smugglers and is involved in procuring illegal weapons.
Further investigation is underway to uncover the complete network, he said.
Sharing operational details, Inspector General of Police, Border Range, Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said that acting on precise intelligence inputs, special teams of Amritsar Rural Police launched a targeted operation and intercepted the accused when he was riding a motorcycle. During the search, police teams recovered an AK-47 assault rifle along with a magazine and cartridges and two live hand grenades, he said.
Senior Superintendent of Police, Amritsar Rural, Kanwalpreet Singh Chahal said that the operation was executed under the close supervision of Superintendent of Police, Investigation, Ramandeep Singh, and Deputy Superintendents of Police Gurinderpal Singh Nagra and Yadwinder Singh.
A first information report under section 25 (8) of the Arms Act and Sections 3, 4, and 5 of the Explosive Substances Act has been registered at the police station in Gharinda in Amritsar Rural on September 30 .
Last week, Amritsar Rural Police dismantled an illegal arms and narcotics supply network with the arrest of three persons, comprising a woman, her husband, and her brother. The police had recovered 10.030 kg heroin, two sophisticated assault rifles, including an AK-47 and an AK-56, along with three magazines and 10 cartridges from their possession.
–IANS
vg/vd