Illegal firearm trading racket busted; 3 held with revolver, ammunition

BALURGHAT: In a major breakthrough, police have busted an illegal firearm trading racket and arrested three persons in this connection from Bangarh under Gangarampur police station area late on Tuesday evening. One revolver and some ammunition have also been recovered.

Police said the arrested persons having identified as

Bapi Sarkar (30), Hitler Mondal (41) and Nurul Islam (22) hail from Nandor and Khojapur.

They were produced before Gangarampur Sub-Divisional court on Wednesday and are being remanded to police custody for further interrogation.

Having learnt from a reliable source that the trio had gathered at Bangarh, around 44 km from Balurghat for firearm trading, Inspector-in-Charge of Gangarampur police station Goutam Roy conducted a raid along with his team of men and caught the trio red-handed on the spot.

Police said the racket had been involved in dealing with firearms in the region over the past few months. Recently, they received information from an informer about the trading at Bangarh on Tuesday. Police in disguise reached the spot and arrested all of them.

After the incident, Goutam Roy said: "This has been a major breakthrough ahead of Diwali. While facing challenges from police, they tried to flee but it went in vain. We caught them red-handed with a revolver and ammunition.

We are interrogating them and trying to know if there is any other person involved in this racket."