Bhubaneswar: A special squad of the Commissionerate Police has busted an illegal firearms supply syndicate and arrested six of its members, Commissioner of Police (CP) Sanjeeb Panda informed on Monday.
The arrested have been identified as Rasmi Ranjan Swain (35) of Kendrapada’s Marsagahi, Utkal Kesari Khuntia (33) of Kendrapada’s Patakura, Krushna Chandra Jena (26) and Chiranjibi Jena (25) of Cuttack’s Niali, Mohamad Samser (34) and Sk Ajharuddin (21) of Khurda’s Jatni.
They were arrested from Bhubaneswar and Jatni.
Panda identified Swain as the kingpin of the syndicate. “The gang procured illegal firearms from Munger in Bihar and sold those in Odisha. They also engaged in extortion and created terror in sand business, and were involved in cattle trading and illegal mining activity,” he said.
The CP further said that 5 fire arms (three 7.65 mm semi automatic pistol, one six round revolver, one single shot fire arm), nine rounds of live ammunitions and two motorcycles were seized from them.
The six arrested have been booked under Sections 308(3)/308(4)/308(5)/131/351 of BNS and 25/27/35 of Arms Act.
Some of the members were earlier involved in murder and kidnapping cases, he added.
The gang was active in Cuttack, Khurda, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapada districts. They used to sell the arms in the rage of Rs 45,000 to Rs 60,000 each according to its quality and nature. Other members of the gang have also been identified and will be arrested soon, police sources further stated.
