Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 21: The fake arms license scandal has taken a new turn with police today recovering three duplicate licenses, which had already been issued on the names of a former Minister and Congress MLA, a known Cardiologist and a CRPF officer.
Police investigations have revealed that two Kashmiri persons, who might have been posted in the Civil Secretariat, had helped the accused in making fake arms licenses, which had been procured by some criminals including Deepak Dogra alias Minta Langra, who was arrested by the City police a day before.
Another accused Raman Sharma alias Bunty son of Padam Nath, a resident of Bakshi Nagar was arrested yesterday while police was tracing two unknown Kashmiri persons and a Krishna Nagar youth Raj Kumar alias Raju Baba.
Police said the arms license in possession of Raj Kumar carried the Home Department number on which the license had originally been issued on the name of former Minister Choudhary Gharu Ram while the license with Bunty had the number on which license had been issued to noted Cardiologist Dr Mohan Lal.
Similarly, Minta Langra possessed the arms license, which had also been issued to a Sub Inspector of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), presently putting up at Jaunpur.
Police said the accused had used a unique modus operandi to provide fake arms licenses including to the criminals by using the numbers of reputed persons anticipating that licenses issue to the latter wouldn’t be subjected to checking.
There had been no police, CID or any other verification done while issuing licenses including the one to history sheeter Minta Langra.
“The arms licenses in possession of criminals and others without any verification had become a major security risk,” police said and didn’t rule out that more such fake licenses might have been issued by the accused involved in the case.
Police teams headed by SHO City Inspector Bharat Sharma were investigating the case under the supervision of SP City (North) Yougal Manhas and SDPO City Kulbir Handa.
Police said the arrested accused including Minta Langra and Bunty have revealed during the questioning that two Kashmiri persons, who had claimed themselves as employees of Home Department in the Civil Secretariat had arranged fake arms licenses for them in 2003-04 after charging a heft sum from them.
A deal on securing fake arms licenses had been struck in the office of Bunty at Bakshi Nagar, police said, adding that the Kashmiris hadn’t given the accused their accurate identity and addresses.
The Kashmiris had adopted unique modus operandi in the scam. They had used the license numbers of prominent persons to issue fake licenses as they anticipated that licenses of politicians and doctors wouldn’t be subjected to checking by police or any other agency.
Police said they were subjecting the arrested accused to sustained questioning to reach to the Kashmiri culprits in the scam. Some more arrests especially the youths, who were in possession of fake arms licenses would be made shortly, they added.
A case in the fake arms licenses has already been registered at City police station for further investigations in the case. Worthwhile to mention here that police had also recovered a revolved issued from Ordnance Factory from the possession of Minta Langra at the time of his arrest. He had procured the revolver on the basis of fake arms license.
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