Father-son duo arrested for supplying illegal arms

NEW DELHI: Delhi police have arrested three persons, including a father and son, with 1,250 illegal cartridges from south Delhi. The Special Cell arrested father Praveen Verma and son Prateek Verma who were based in Uttar Pradesh and supplied illegal weapons.They were arrested on Sunday night from Ashram Chowk following a tip-off when they came to hand over the cartridges to a Sonu, who too was arrested.

A resident of Delhi, Sonu bought arms and cartridges from the Vermas and supplied them to criminals in Delhi, the officer said. Accused Praveen Kumar Verma had a gun shop in Sikohabad, District Firozabad, UP whose license was cancelled in the year 2007. Since 2007, he has been procuring cartridges from his erstwhile network of licensed dealers and has been selling the same through a network of conduits in Bihar, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, MP and Delhi/NCR. He along with his son, used to visit Etah, Etawa, Mainpuri, Firozabad and others places to collect pilfered cartridges from his contacts and then to supply them to receivers in various States for a handsome margin of Rs 200 to Rs 400 per cartridge. Accused Prateek has done ITI Diploma in Electrician. Since early 2019, he has been assisting his father in the illicit business.

Accused Sonu was brought into the world of crime by one Jitender of village Biloni, Kanchanpur, District Dholpur, Rajasthan who has many cases of extortion, robbery, attempt to murder etc. registered against him in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. "He is an important player in the Jitender syndicate and works as a courier of pilfered cartridges to various places in Haryana, Rajasthan, Western UP and Delhi for a handsome commission per trip. This syndicate has been found supplying over 3,500-4,000 cartridges per month of various prohibited as well as non prohibited bores," said Manishi Chandra, DCP Special Cell