Many Gzb firearm owners to lose licences

Ghaziabad: Thousands of arms licences are likely to get cancelled by the Ghaziabad district administration for failure to deposit firearms during the operation of the model code of conduct.

The Ghaziabad police have started drawing up a list of violators who have failed to deposit firearms at nearby police stations ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha Elections. Cops said that 945 licences from two police station areas of Ghaziabad are under the scanner and stern action may be initiated against them soon.

According to police, the police station in charges around the district have been asked to prepare a list of violators who failed to deposit firearms.

Upendra Kumar Agrawal, Senior Superintendent of Police, Ghaziabad said that police have prepared a list of 945 violators from two police stations areas of Ghaziabad.

"A report was compiled after receiving data of violators from two police stations, who failed to deposit their licensed firearms despite repeated notices. 626 violators are from Kavi Nagar police station area while 319 are from Sihani gate police station jurisdiction. The list has been sent to the district administration for further investigations," said Agrawal.

He added that the district administration has issued around 16,000 gun licenses and of them, police recovered around 10,500 arms from the licensed holders.

"The firearms holders, whose names have been included in the list of violators, are believed to have moved out to different cities or abroad since they failed to act on the order. We will launch a drive to trace them, while an action under relevant section of IPC for violating section 144 of CrPC will be taken against them," added Agrawal.

The officer further informed that around 1500 people- including government officials, some businessmen and bank security personnel were exempted from deposing their weapons due to various reasons.

A senior police officer said that a screening committee comprising the Collector, who is also the District Election Officer and the Superintendent of District police, would meet at the Collectorate to take a decision on gun owners who have sought exemption from the rule and have violated the Model Code of Conduct.

The district administration has asked all licensed gun owners to deposit their firearms with the police ahead of the Lok Sabha polls on April 11.