Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 10: Days after Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann met Union Home Minister Amit Shah to discuss the law and order situation in Punjab and asked the District Magistrates (DMs) to review the gun licenses issued to the close aides of “Waris Punjab De” head Amritpal Singh, the Kishtwar administration in Jammu and Kashmir has also cancelled the arms license of one of the close aides of the “radical Sikh preacher”.
Official sources said that the DC Kishtwar Dr Devansh Yadav revoked the arms license of one Varinder Singh after Punjab Police shared inputs with the District Administrations in Samba and Kishtwar regarding issuance of two gun licenses from the two districts to as many individuals, Varinder Singh and Talwainder Singh of Tarn Taran, Punjab, in 2013.
“The 12 bore license of Varinder Singh has been cancelled yesterday and very soon he will be booked under the Arms Act,” DC Kishtwar, Dr Devansh Yadav told the Excelsior.
DC Samba, Anuradha Gupta said she doesn’t know whether any arms license has been issued to any person linked with Amritpal Singh in Samba district.
The DCs in Kishtwar and Samba Districts said that no fresh license has been issued to any individual after 2017. They however said that arms licenses have been renewed after proper verification of the individuals possessing the licenses.
Usually an arms license is renewed after a period of five years, but according to police sources, Varinder Singh and Talwainder Singh, who had got the arms licenses through third parties in Jammu and Kashmir, have not got their licenses renewed since 2017.
The issuance of arms licenses to Varinder Singh, Talwainder Singh and several other aides of Amritpal Singh in Punjab became a controversy after the “Waris Punjab De” head along with his supporters earlier entered a police station in Amritsar, Punjab and brandished weapons while demanding that an FIR registered against them was revoked.
Pertinently, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been probing a case of issuance of around 2.80 lakh gun licenses to non-J&K residents between 2012 and 2016 in violation of norms.
Follow our WhatsApp channel