This is single biggest haul of illegal arms in the state. As many as 44 illegal arms were seized along with 30 bullets from secret hideouts in Belachiti in Durgapur and Sahibgunj in Ranigunje, according to senior police officers.
There were single and barrel guns and rifles. The raids conducted following the Chief Election Commissioner’s recent directive to launch special drives to unearth illegal arms in the state, came after a tip-off.
The Special IG, CID, Anuj Sharma, confirmed the haul late on Friday night. He said the CID teams conducted the raids on Friday evening following specific intelligence inputs regarding the arms racket. The hideouts belonged to some security agencies operating in the area and their owners and guards were detained for questioning. The agencies were operating from the region.
Police sources said a huge number of fake arms licenses were also seized during the operation. The licenses were purportedly issued form Dhanbad in Bihar, Kathmandu in Nepal and several other places. The licenses carried seals and photos of police officers, but they were found to be fake.
The police have received more inputs and further recoveries are not ruled out. Preliminary investigation showed that the guns were used in political violence in Bengal, the police said.
Last year too, the CID had unearthed similar rackets operating under the garb of security agencies in Tiljala area of east Kolkata and Durgapur.