Accused manufactured and supplied illegal weapons to several states, police said. (Representational)
Punjab Police today claimed it has busted another Madhya Pradesh-based illegal arms supply network and arrested its main supplier.
This is the third such MP-based illegal weapon manufacturing and supply module busted by Punjab Police in the last eight months.
The accused has been identified as Baljit Singh alias Sweety Singh, a resident of Barwani district of Madhya Pradesh.
He was found indulging in manufacturing and supplying high-quality illegal weapons to Punjab and other states in north India, said Director General of Police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta here.
The police also recovered three .32 bore pistols, along with three magazines from him, he added.
Earlier, Amritsar Rural Police had unearthed two such modules, including one illegal small arms manufacturing unit in Madhya Pradesh with the arrest of smugglers, who were supplying weapons to gangsters and criminals in Punjab.
G P Gupta, in a statement, said the development came 10 days after Kapurthala police in follow-up operations led by SSP Harkamalpreet Singh Khakh arrested four robbers after recovering 10 pistols and one rifle along with ammunition from them.
He said the arrested robbers revealed they were getting the supply of weapons from Madhya Pradesh-based smuggler Sweety Singh and were hatching a conspiracy to carry out robberies, snatch money from petrol pumps and farmers.
The DGP said following these inputs, Kapurthala police procured arrest warrants of Sweety Singh and a special police team from Kapurthala was sent to Barwani district to arrest him after coordinating with the Madhya Pradesh Police.
"After vigorous efforts, the Punjab Police team, while working closely with MP police, managed to arrest Sweety Singh, who unsuccessfully attempted to evade arrest by crossing the Narmada river to enter the Maharashtra border," he said.
The DGP also thanked the Madhya Pradesh Police for their support.
Senior Superintendent of Police Khakh said Sweety had disclosed that he and his elder brother, Sumer Singh, were into the manufacturing and supply of weapons and they used to upload videos of pistols on various social media platforms to lure their customers and this is how the present robber module of Punjab established contact with them.
He said initial investigation found that Sweety was running a YouTube channel in the name of ''Azad Group Munger'' on which he used to flourish his illegal weapons business and when buyers asked about price, the group used to share their WhatsApp number.
Sweety also revealed that more than 20 people were involved in the business of manufacturing and sale of illicit weapons, especially .30 bore and .32 bore Pistols, Mr Khakh added.