2 lakh arms licences issued in 10 years under scanner

Chandigarh : The Punjab Police are reviewing all arms licences issued in the past decade after two modules of terrorists and criminals were found carrying licensed weapons. Senior police officials said norms were bypassed in issuing licences, allegedly under political pressure.
“The number of licences doubled to 4 lakh from less than 2 lakh in 2007. Most of the new licences carried recommendations of the Akali legislators or halqa incharges. All cases will be probed,” the officer said. A senior officer said, “Last month, a terror module was busted. Two former terrorists and TADA detainees had a licence to carry weapons. We were astonished to find that persons with a criminal background had got arms licence. The licences were recommended by politicians.”
The police also found that a former Akali MLA had recommended licences of many persons with a shady past. Gurpreet Singh alias Gopi and Amna Seth, named in last year’s murders of a Dera Sacha Sauda follower at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village (Faridkot) and a self-styled godman in Rajasthan, were found to have arms licences.
“We are verifying the recommendations made in this case, besides looking into all arms licences issued in the past 10 years,” said an officer.
The move follows an announcement by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh in April that the arms licences issued by the SAD-BJP government would be reviewed.
Politician-gangster nexus being probed
Ferozepur: The police are zeroing in on several politicians of the border district who allegedly recommended the issuance of arms licences to gangsters. Over the past 17 years, thousands of fake arms licences issued by local licensing authorities have been recovered from criminals operating in Uttar Pradesh and other states. In 2000, an arms licence racket had been unearthed following the arrest of hardcore criminals by the Haryana Police. They had secured licences from Ferozepur under fake names. Later, after a writ petition was filed by then Congress MLAs Mohinder Rinwa and Hans Raj Jossan, a CBI inquiry was marked into the case. The CBI had scanned 27,188 arms licences issued between September 2000 and February 2001, of which around 15,000 were found fake. Six clerks in the licensing branch had been suspended. They had admitted to having made fake licences on the directions of leaders of the ruling party. In 2015, 53 illegal weapons were recovered by the district police, besides forged licences and fake stamps of district magistrates in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and UP. Gaurav Garg, SSP, said the police were probing how gangsters got the arms licences.