Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Jan 22: Around 2500 private security guards of Jammu and Kashmir have fled Mumbai following a massive crackdown against them and arrest of their 21 members by Mumbai Crime Branch.
A special team of Crime Branch, Mumbai is arriving in Poonch on Monday to investigate cases of the 21 private security guards, who were released on bail last week. They were arrested early this month.
According to sources, 2500 private security guards mostly belonging to Poonch and Rajouri districts have fled Mumbai following a massive crackdown against them by Mumbai Crime Branch. The security guards came under scanner following their involvement in some criminal activity including murder of 25-year-old lawyer Pallavi Purkayastha in Wadala’s Himalayan Heights, Mumbai by a watchman from Uri in North Kashmir last year.
Around 21 security guards of Poonch district were arrested by Mumbai Crime Branch early this month for moving around with guns that were not registered with the local police. Twenty-one rifles and 193 live cartridges were seized from the men during raids by the agency’s property cell at three places in Rajeev Nagar slums, Bandra in Mumbai.
However, with the intervention of MLA Poonch, Aijaz Jan, who took up the matter with the Maharashtra Government and Mumbai Police the arrested security guards were released on bail last week.
These security guards have obtained gun licences from Poonch district and had been working for a Mumbai based security firm, Modern VR Security Force, for the past six months. They were posted at banks, corporate offices, malls, ATMs and multiplexes; some also guarded cash transfer vans.
The security guards had revealed to the Mumbai Crime Branch that they had obtained gun licences from Poonch district under the self-defence criterion, but failed to inform city authorities once they moved to Mumbai for work.
But the gun control laws require licence-holders moving to a different city to register their arms with that place’s police, district Collector and Weapons and Ammunition Department.
There are 30, 000 private security guards and watchmen of Jammu and Kashmir working in Mumbai and some of them have been there for around 3 decades. Majority of them are from Poonch district, followed by Rajouri, Kupwara and Baramulla districts of the State.
MLA Poonch Aijaz Jan is taking issue of the private Security Guards with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah so that the Jammu and Kashmir Government takes the issue with the Maharashtra Government. Jan told Excelsior that majority of the guards are poor who have sold their lands to purchase guns for security. He said that it is a big crisis for his district as majority of these guards are from Poonch.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel