Five men held for firearms racket in Uttar Pradesh

LUCKNOW - Five men were arrested in Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh district Thursday for their involvement in the manufacture and supply of illegal firearms, police said. Several pistols and live cartridges were seized from them.

The five men, in their mid-30s, worked for a Bihar-based racket of manufacturing firearms and supplying them in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and other states.

“Acting on a tip-off, we arrested the five men in Jahanganj area while they were on their way to sell the illegal consignment of firearms to their clients,” police inspector S.K. Sharma told reporters in Azamgarh, some 300 km from Lucknow.

According to the police, five pistols and around 30 live cartridges were recovered from the five men.

“On the basis of inputs provided by the five men, we have contacted the police of adjoining states to unearth the illegal trade that is being controlled from Bihar’s Munger,” Sharma said.