3 nabbed for big arms supply racket

BANGALORE
: If we’ve reconciled to the horrific truth of Bangalore’s brush with terror, here’s
more.

The city crime branch police have busted an arms racket that points to a full-fledged manufacturing module in a north Indian state. Without giving any specifics, police commissioner Shankar Bidari said three persons, including a moulvi, have been arrested. “Considering the gravity of the case, we’re proposing that the CBI take over the probe,” Bidari said.

Hussainsab from Gadag, Nawab Barkathulla from Bihar, and Mohammed Siraj from Jharkhand were picked up from a Chitradurga madrasa. Four .32-calibre revolvers, one 9-mm pistol and 32 rounds of ammunition have been seized from them. The weapons are marked ‘made in USA’, but were manufactured in North India.

Hussainsab, a jobless undergraduate, joined a madrasa at Idayathpur in Chitradurga district two years ago and started supplying arms. Nawab, a moulvi in Nagina, UP, came to Bangalore four years ago. While collecting contributions for madrasas, he came in contact with Hussainsab, then shifted base to Idayathpur and joined in arms dealing. Siraj joined the duo in March 2009.

The CCB sleuths got wind of the racket two months ago. They heard of a group manufacturing arms in North India. The arms were available for a price of Rs 2 lakh.

“The arrested persons only procured the arms from the manufacturers and sold them here. Their customers include underworld gangs and extremists. They have sold hundreds of weapons. We are tracking them,” Bidari said.

Recently, an organised gang began procuring the arms and selling these to gangsters and extremists. The police have traced similarity between the arms confiscated from the three with those used in a shootout involving the underworld in Mangalore.
Sorce::TimesOfIndia