The Punjab Police on Saturday claimed to have busted a gang of Madhya Pradesh-based arms smugglers with the arrest of two persons.
Apparently, the gang also has links with certain "Punjab-based terrorists" and is suspected to have supplied over two dozen .32 bore pistols to gangsters and criminals in the state during the last three months alone, the police said in a statement here.
A huge cache of arms including 12 country-made pistols and 15 magazines were recovered from their possession, they said.
Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta said Mahesh Selotia and Jaggu were nabbed from their native villages in Madhya Pradesh's Khargone by a team of Punjab Police.
Raids were conducted in Khargone after investigations into the recent seizure of four illegal .32 bore country-made pistols by the Amritsar Rural police revealed the involvement of the MP-based gang led by one Rahul, he said.
The DGP said investigations conducted so far have revealed that this gang has smuggled several major weapons consignments for Punjab-based gangsters.
He said this gang had also smuggled a consignment of six pistols that was seized by the Patiala police in September last year. Besides, this gang's involvement was also found in a case of seizure of illegal weapons at Amritsar.
Gupta said the possibility of this gang having links with "Punjab-based terrorists" cannot be ruled out as investigations indicate that the kingpin, Rahul, was in contact with several gangsters and hardliners lodged in the state's prisons and had been actively supplying illegal weapons to them.
Significantly, he was also in close contact with Akashdeep Singh, the prime accused in the drone module busted by the Punjab Police in 2019 who is presently lodged in Amritsar jail.
