STF nabs 4 more in fake arms licence racket

Rudrapur: Uttarakhand Special Task Force (STF) arrested four more people from Udham Singh Nagar district in connection with a fake arms licence and illegal weapons racket, taking the total number of arrests to nine.Five firearms, 39 live cartridges and forged arms licences were seized from Saurabh Agrawal of Kashipur, his driver Amit Pal, Karanjit Singh, a restaurant owner from Sitarganj originally from Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, and Vikramjit Singh Toor of Sitarganj.The arrests were made under Operation Prahaar, launched after the STF began verifying arms licences transferred from other states.The STF had registered an FIR at Kashipur police station on June 4 after months of intelligence gathering and scrutiny of documents.

Earlier, on June 10, STF and Udham Singh Nagar Police seized four illegal firearms and 237 cartridges from a car in Kashipur, widening the scope of the investigation.On June 11, Saurabh Agrawal and Amit Pal were arrested near Rudrapur Roadways. Police recovered a 12-bore pump-action gun, two semi-automatic pistols, eight live cartridges and two forged arms licences from them.Subsequent raids in the Sitarganj-Rudrapur belt led to the arrest of Karanjit Singh and Vikramjit Singh Toor, from whom two semi-automatic pistols and 31 live cartridges were seized.

STF SSP Ajay Singh said the agency would “expose the entire network.” Inspector Vikas Chaudhary, who led the STF team, said, “Several important leads have emerged during interrogation, and further action will follow on the basis of evidence.” Three cases have been registered so far.