Punjab Man Cooks Up Fake Gunfire Story To Get Arms License

A man has been arrested for staging a fake firing incident at his house in Moga to get an arms license, police said on Wednesday.

The man was arrested with two of his aides who helped him stage the firing, they said.

"The firing incident reported by a Bambiha Bhai village-based man claiming that some unidentified persons opened fire at his house on Monday morning, has turned out to be a story concocted by him to obtain the arms license," a Punjab police statement said here Wednesday evening.

It said that the Moga district police have solved the case, with the arrest of Tarlochan Singh, a resident of village Bambiha Bhai, and his two accomplices, Kulwinder Singh alias Kinda of Bargari in Faridkot and Sukhwant Singh alias Fauji of village Cheeda, for cooking up the incident.

Police have also booked Jagmeet Singh alias Jagmita, a resident of village Channiyan in district Faridkot.

One .315 bore country-made pistol with two live cartridges, one .32 bore revolver with seven live cartridges, four mobile phones, and a pen drive were recovered from the possession of accused, it said.

"On Monday, Tarlochan Singh had informed the police that he had been threatened for ransom by gangsters through WhatsApp call a few days back and on Monday morning around 4 am, unknown persons opened fire on his house," it said.

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Faridkot P K Yadav said that an FIR dated June 20 was registered under the provisions of the the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and of Arms Act at Police Station Smalsar.

During investigation when CCTVs were checked, police got suspicious about the whole incident, which led to an in-depth interrogation of Tarlochan Singh, who later confessed that he had received a ransom threat from gangsters through a WhatsApp call a few days earlier and had applied for an arms license in his own name which was not cleared, he said.

Mr Yadav said that later, Tarlochan Singh procured weapons to stage firing at his own house to obtain a firearms license, and deliberately mentioned the name of Canada-based gangster Goldy Brar in the media because of his alleged involvement in Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala's murder.

Senior Superintendent of Police, Moga, Gulneet Singh Khurana said that Tarlochan Singh had procured a licensed .32 bore revolver from his friend Kulwinder Singh and a .315 bore country-made pistol from Sukhwant Singh.

Sukhwant Singh alias Fauji had procured the weapon from Jagmeet Singh. Further investigations in the matter are on, the SSP said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)