The Ghaziabad police on Wednesday arrested five people for allegedly operating an illegal arms factory in Muradnagar and manufacturing country-made weapons, which police suspect they wanted to supply during the upcoming assembly elections in the state.
The suspects have been identified as Aman Rangad, Noor Hasan Saifi, Salman Qureshi, Suhail Malik and Yusuf Rangad, said police.
Police said the house out of which the factory was operating belonged to one Zahiruddin Razi, whose accomplices were nabbed in connection with a similar operation of a factory at a different location in Muradnagar on September 25, while he fled and later obtained bail.
Police said after his illegal arms factory was busted in September, Razi operated another factory in the same house in Muradnagar for some days and later shifted base.
“The suspects told us that Razi later rented the house to them for ₹20,000 per month. The five suspects were nabbed while preparing illegal arms. They told us that the price for country-made firearm was between ₹5,000 and ₹10,000 while illegal country-made pistols were priced at ₹35,000-40,000. We suspect that the gang was operating this factory for supplying illegal firearms during the upcoming elections,” said Iraj Raja, superintendent of police (rural).
The suspects also told police that apart from manufacturing illegal arms, they also procured cartridges of .315 and .12 calibre from two people–Rahees Lambu and Sonu Kumar, residents of Kithor in Meerut.
“We are trying to trace the two suspects, along with several others, who were involved in operating the arms factory. Several teams are trying to trace them and are also on the lookout for people who procured arms from the gang,” said the officer.
Police said they recovered 16 different calibre weapons, five magazines for pistols, different equipment used for preparing arms along with raw material from the suspects.
