Bhubaneswar, August 11: At a time when the Crime Records Bureau underlines the stiff rise in murderous crimes on the prowl in Odisha, illegal trading of arms and ammunition in its Capital City Bhubaneswar and its adjoining city Cuttack has emerged as a concern for the denizens.
Illegal gun trafficking to every corner of the state is now a challenge for the police and investigation agencies. Gun peddling, gun fighting and shootout cases in the Cuttack-Bhubaneswar Twin Cities have put the Commissionrate Police in trouble. According to the statistics of the Commissionerate Police, at least 738 illegal guns and pistols were recovered during the last 12 years from peddlers and hardened criminals with more than 3500 live bullets from their possession. The huge cache of arms and ammunition includes sophisticated guns, imported, automatic pistols & revolvers, single-shot country-made pistols along with higher-end, foldable carbine guns.
As in the records, the Urban District Police(UDP) Bhubaneswar had seized as many as 19 pistols from criminals wherein at least 27 accused were arrested and forwarded to the court. Similarly, Cuttack UDP had recovered 12 guns and 63 single shots from the accused. The police in the year 2014 had seized 93 firearms with shots. In 2016, 717 bullets were seized from the antisocial elements.
A huge cache of arms and ammunition were seized from the Dhal Samant brothers in Cuttack in 2016 and 2018. 23 guns were seized from the Dhal Samant duo and 16 9mm guns from their accomplices. Apart from it, in one of the bigger raids conducted by the Commissionerate police Bhubaneswar in the Khodha area, a gun-making unit was unearthed from Jankia village. From the illegal gun factory, 32 country-made guns were seized along with tools. In another raid, the police recovered 11 guns from a Bhubaneswar-based government quarter.
During investigations, the police arrested hundreds of criminals, gangsters and peddlers under various Sections of the Arms Act. However, the sources of the illegal trafficking of arms & ammunition and the masterminds involved in the links are yet to be dealt with. According to police sources, in a number of gun-haunt cases investigations revealed that gun suppliers from the Munger area in Bihar are exporting guns to Odisha. However, the illegal gun hubs and the masterminds here are so far to be spotted.
A former police Administrator said, there are many barriers before the Odisha Police to initiate manhunts in the neighboring states. Search operation for hardened criminals in Bihar is more difficult even for the Quick Action Team (QAT) who are nationwide players of illegal gun-trading.
