Punjab Police unearth illicit weapons supply network

In a major interstate operation, Punjab Police on Saturday busted another Madhya Pradesh-based illicit weapon supply network with the arrest of its main supplier, Baljit Singh, alias Sweety Singh.
Singh, a resident of Barwani of district in Madhya Pradesh, has been found indulging in manufacturing and supply of high-quality illicit weapons to Punjab and other states of northern India, said Director General of Police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta.

Kapurthala Police have also recovered three .32 bore pistols, along with three magazines from his possession, he added.

Notably, this is the third such MP-based illegal weapon manufacturing and supply module busted by Punjab Police in the past eight months.

Earlier, Amritsar Rural Police had unearthed two such modules, including one illicit small arms manufacturing unit in MP, with the arrest of weapon smugglers, who were supplying weapons to gangsters, criminals and radicals in Punjab.

Sharing details, Gupta said the development came 10 days after Kapurthala Police in the follow-up operations led by SSP Harkamalpreet Singh Khakh had arrested four robbers after recovering 10 pistols and one rifle, along with ammunition, from their possession.

He said the arrested robbers revealed they were getting the supply of weapons from Sweety Singh and were hatching a conspiracy to carry out robberies, snatch money from petrol pumps as well as farmers.


The DGP said following these inputs, the police procured arrest warrants of Sweety Singh and a special police team from Kapurthala was despatched to Barwani district to arrest him after coordinating the operations with the local police.

"After vigorous efforts, the Punjab Police team, while working closely with MP Police, managed to arrest Sweety Singh, who unsuccessfully attempted to evade arrest by crossing the Narmada river to enter the Maharashtra border," he said.

The DGP also thanked Madhya Pradesh Police for their enormous support to Punjab Police in unearthing these illicit weapon-IANS