Arms Act cases rise substantially in 2018
New Delhi: The arms act cases in the National Capital have increased as in the year 2018, 1,159 cases have been reported in Delhi in which more than 1,400 persons were arrested and over 1,200 firearms were recovered. Police claimed that arms supply had increased in the city as well as NCR areas. "It has been that the budding criminals have a craze of keeping the gun with them," the investigators said.
The three years' Delhi Police data, accessed by Millennium Post, claimed that since 2016, the cases for the first time have crossed to more than 1,000 this year. The police detection has led to the arrest of 1,444 persons and 1,243 arms have been recovered till September 30. Around 5,577 ammunition has been recovered. "In 2016, 688 cases took place, whereas there was an increase in 2017 as 993 cases were reported. In these two years, more than 1,800 persons were nabbed and more than 1,900 firearms were recovered," claimed the data.
Senior police officers, who busted several gun trafficking racket and arrested several gangsters, told this newspaper that firearms supply has increased in Delhi-NCR because there is rise in demand. "We have seen the gun craze among the gangsters and also an increase in the illegal gun making factories in adjoining states," said the officers. One of the officers added that .32 bore pistols are in demand. City police made efforts to connect all backward and forward linkages and unearth the entire chain of supply, transit route, mode of trafficking, end users and source of illicit firearms. Delhi Police gave a severe blow to the illicit firearm suppliers to Delhi and recovered huge quantities of illicit firearms. In order to check the supply of illegal firearms, the audit of the records of the licenced firearm dealers is also being conducted.
Meanwhile, in the year 2017 around 589 licenses were issued, 9,553 were renewed and 435 were cancelled whereas in the year 2016, 907 arms licenses were issued whereas 9734 were renewed and 698 were cancelled.
