Police recover illegal firearms from bus at College Street, four arrested

Tension ran high at College Street market area after the police recovered two pipe guns and 8 rounds of cartridges from a running bus. Police have arrested 4 persons on the charges of smuggling of illegal firearms.

Police constable Pavan Kumar Thakur, who engaged in a scuffle with the accused inside the bus, was injured after falling from the running bus. Some of accused pushed him off the bus and he fell on the tram line after loosing balance. He was taken to the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital where he is undergoing treatment. It was learnt from the hospital sources that he had received four stitches on various parts of his body.

Acting on a tip off, police from Jorasanko police station intercepted the bus at the College Street area. Police found that 2 pipe guns and 8 rounds of cartridges inside the fruit carton carried by the bus. Police came to know that some arms were coming to the city from Bihar and the arm dealer will travel in a bus to reach his destination. Police also came to know from their sources that the bus will travel from this area on Friday morning. When the police intercepted the vehicle, the four accused engaged in a scuffle with the police and tried to flee from the spot. But, police personnel failed their attempt. The four accused have been identified as Mohammed Mintu, Mohammed Jumman, Seikh Raju and Seikh Siraz. Police came to know in the interrogation that Mohammed Mintu is a resident of Nawada in Bihar while the rest are all the residents of Kalabagan area in Jorasanko. The accused were notorious criminals and were wanted in many cases. In the preliminary investigation, police came to know that the accused were dealing in illegal arms. They were bringing the arms from Bihar to smuggle them to a person in North Kolkata. Police were conducting raids to nab the person. Mintu, who used to work as a helper of a bus running between Bihar and West Bengal, has told the police that he was not involved in any arms smuggling gang and a person gave him the fruit carton when the bus had left Bihar on Thursday. The person, that gave Mintu the carton, instructed him to call up a person named Mohammed Miraj and hand him the fruit carton. As per the instruction of the person, he called up Miraj on Friday morning after the bus reached the city. Later, Miraj along with two others reached the spot. Police are, however, investigating whether there was any possibility of these fire arms being used during the election. All the accused were remanded in police custody after being produced before the Bankshall Court on Friday. The police were also investigating if some other people were involved with the gang. Meanwhile, in a separate incident police have recovered two fire arms, 6 round cartridges and a few live bombs from an under construction building at New Town. One person was arrested in this connection so far. On Thursday night police raided an under construction building at Jatragachhi area and recovered the arms. They have arrested one Nihar Mondal in this connection.