An arms supply chain operated allegedly by an inmate from Punjab’s Nabha jail, through which gangsters in Delhi were supplied weapons, was busted after the Delhi Police Special Cell arrested three members of the racket.
Police said the accused — Aniket, 25, Sourav, 23, and Anand Kumar, 25 — were arrested for supplying arms procured from Madhya Pradesh and Bihar to Delhi gangsters on the instructions of Sonu Paswan, who is lodged in Nabha Jail.
On March 2, police received a tip-off that Aniket would be coming to ITO with a consignment from Indore. A team led by Inspector Sunil Tewatiya laid a trap near ITO and arrested the accused. Four pistols of .32 bore were recovered from his possession, police said.
During his questioning, police found that Aniket was part of a team of suppliers. “He admitted he was involved in smuggling illicit arms over the last year. He came in contact with Sonu Paswan, who was from Jharkhand. Sonu told him he was involved in smuggling illegal arms and ammunition from Bihar and Madhya Pradesh to Delhi, Haryana and Punjab for local gangsters,” said DCP (Special Cell) Amit Kaushik.
Aniket, a class 8 dropout and a former bike mechanic, got in touch with Paswan after following him on Instagram. “After that, they started chatting on Instagram and WhatsApp,” the DCP said.
Paswan was arrested five months ago with an arms consignment in Punjab and has been lodged in Nabha Jail since. From jail, police said, he managed to get in touch with Aniket on WhatsApp using an international number and directed him to procure and supply arms.
“On February 28, Aniket went to Indore, where he received four pistols from a supplier on March 1. He was also in touch with Pakistan-based illegal firearms and ammunitions suppliers through WhatsApp,” DCP Kaushik said.
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Aniket, who procured these guns at Rs 15,000- Rs 20,000 per piece, was to sell them to Saurav and Anand at Rs 30,000 per piece and had already received the money. Sourav and Anand were later arrested on March 3.
“For smuggling and supplying illegal arms, Aniket got Rs 5,000 per piece as his share,” DCP Kaushik said.
Sourav, who graduated from Delhi University in 2023, is a former kabbadi player. In 2022, he got involved in a quarrel with a member of the Naveen Khati gang. “He too came in contact with Paswan… he received illegal pistols twice from Paswan through Aniket,” the DCP said.
Anand, a resident of Badarpur, came in touch with local gangsters while in school. “In 2021-22, he was lodged in Punjab jail for a year in a kidnapping case of a girl. After his release, he came in contact with Paswan through Instagram,” Kaushik said.