Arms smuggling case: STF team heads out to Bihar

Kolkata: A team of the Special Task Force (STF) of Kolkata Police has set out for Bihar to further probe in connection with the incident in which firearms from Rifle Factory Ishapore were smuggled to Maoists.

The police decided to go to Bihar for investigation into the case, anticipating that the matter was not limited to smuggling of firearms to Maoists or anti-social groups in Bihar, but also to the rebel groups in the North East.

The police have arrested six persons, including two from Bihar - Ajay Pandey alias Guddu Pandit and Jaysankar Pandey.

The police are considering Guddu to be one of the main persons behind the operation of the entire racket that had been operating from Bihar, with Jaysankar being one of his associates.

Investigation has revealed that like Jaysankar, Guddu had many other close aides who used to look after the deals with the insurgent groups from North East. The police had also come to know that they used to get bullets from their counterparts in Punjab.

The police are now trying to arrest the close aides of Guddu and at the same time, trying to find out who were helping them to get bullets from Punjab.

It may be mentioned that the police have reconstructed the plot on Tuesday. The police had taken Bhola, who was also arrested, to Rifle Factory Ishapore for reconstruction of the plot, following which they came to know about the involvement of some more officials of the rifle factory. The police have already arrested two officials of the rifle factory on Monday.

The officials were summoned and they were also questioned in this connection, sources said, adding that the police have come to know about some more persons, who also hail from Bihar.

Subsequently, a team comprising senior officers of STF was sent to Bihar and it has been learnt that they would be conducting raids at different places, including Patna and Nawada.

During reconstruction of the plot on Tuesday, police have spotted the window from where they used to throw scrap firearms out of the room where

it was stored. There was a huge quan-

tity of firearms piled up in the storerooms.

The police have also identified the places from where they used to scale the walls of the rifle factory, to avoid getting noticed while taking firearms out of the place.