Ahead of I-Day, large cache of ammunition seized in Delhi

New Delhi, Aug 12 (IANS) Days ahead of Independence Day, Delhi Police have recovered a large cache of ammunition and arrested six persons in connection with the case, an official said on Friday.

The accused have been identified as Ajmal Khan, Rashid allias Lallan, Parikshit Negi, Saddam, Kamran and Nasir.

In a special media briefing on Friday, Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Priyanka Kashyap said that on August 6, two police personnel were on patrolling duty in the East district area.

"At around 6.30 a.m., they spotted two suspects with a trolley bag. On seeing the police personnel, they got flustered and started moving briskly," the DCP said.

However, the police personnel intercepted them and searched the duo thoroughly, which led to the recovery of 2,251 live cartridges, including different types of imported ammunition.

Accordingly, a case under Arms Act was registered against the duo identified as Ajmal Khan and Rashid alias Lallan.

On sustained interrogation, the accused persons disclosed that they had received the ammunition from a person in Dehradun, and the same was to be delivered to a man in Lucknow.

"The accused duo also disclosed that they had supplied similar consignments four-five times in the past," Kashyap said.

Considering the gravity of the matter ahead of the country's 75th Independence Day, multiple police teams were formed to unearth both the source and the receivers of the consignment.

A police team was dispatched to Lucknow, where it raided several places and finally one of the proposed receivers, Saddam, was nabbed from Suetha Kalan village in Jaunpur district.

Simultaneously, another team was sent to Dehradun to trace the source of the illegal ammunition. Through technical surveillance, the team identified one accused named Parikshit Negi, who ran a gun house in Dehradun.

"The police team raided his place and arrested him. He was brought to Delhi and on sustained interrogation, Negi disclosed that he had procured the ammunition from several gun houses in Uttarakhand as well as other sources and after manipulating the records of his gun house, he further supplied the ammunition to the accused persons who were already under police custody," the officer said.

Negi also disclosed that he had earlier supplied similar consignments to the accused persons four-five times.

Kashyap said that three more members of the syndicate were later identified and arrested by the police.

"Some more arrests are likely to be made and more ammunition are likely to be seized," she added.