Meerut: The bullets made in factories for licensed gun users continue to make its way into the dark underbelly of illegal gun runners. Bullets made in local illegal units are yet to win the trust of those using country-made guns. According to data provided by the ADG (law and order) office, last year police had recovered 33,132 live factory made bullets in raids while not a single bullet made in an illegal unit was found. While this year, till September, 31,926 factory-made bullets were seized as compared to 3,528 local bullets, which is still negligible. Senior police officers conceded that the survival of the illegal firearms manufacturing units is highly dependent on the availability of factory-made bullets which are always the first preference of owners of such weapons. But police have not been able to curb the pilferage of such bullets into the market.
Additional director general (law and order) Prashant Kumar said, “Over the years, we have observed the supply of the factory-made bullets is facilitated by a nexus of a few existing arms licence owners, professional sports shooters who have access to large quantities for practice sessions and arms dealers in cities. We are working in that direction to make every agency or individual more accountable for its stock. Our ongoing crackdown on this nexus is primarily the reason why country-made bullets are now entering the market.”
Notably, on June 2, 2017, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) had arrested national-level shooter Prashant Bishnoi, a key accused in multi-crore gun-running and wildlife smuggling case, from Meerut. According to DRI, Bishnoi had misused his professional permit to import a limited supply of arms and ammunition for practice. Slovenian national Boris Sobotic Mikolic and two other accused were intercepted after their arrival at the Delhi airport by a Turkish Airlines flight carrying 25 illegally imported lethal weapons and other items worth about Rs 4.5 crore with them. The investigating agency had linked this to a larger nexus of professional shooters and arms dealers misusing their permits to overdraw bullets which then found their way to the illegal market.
Additional director general (law and order) Prashant Kumar said, “Over the years, we have observed the supply of the factory-made bullets is facilitated by a nexus of a few existing arms licence owners, professional sports shooters who have access to large quantities for practice sessions and arms dealers in cities. We are working in that direction to make every agency or individual more accountable for its stock. Our ongoing crackdown on this nexus is primarily the reason why country-made bullets are now entering the market.”
Notably, on June 2, 2017, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) had arrested national-level shooter Prashant Bishnoi, a key accused in multi-crore gun-running and wildlife smuggling case, from Meerut. According to DRI, Bishnoi had misused his professional permit to import a limited supply of arms and ammunition for practice. Slovenian national Boris Sobotic Mikolic and two other accused were intercepted after their arrival at the Delhi airport by a Turkish Airlines flight carrying 25 illegally imported lethal weapons and other items worth about Rs 4.5 crore with them. The investigating agency had linked this to a larger nexus of professional shooters and arms dealers misusing their permits to overdraw bullets which then found their way to the illegal market.
