Tehelka Sting - Rs.70000/- Can Get You A AK-47/56
Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 7:44 pm
Tehelka Sting - Rs 70,000 Can Get You An AK-47
ANURAG TRIPATHI and ETMAD A. KHAN met smugglers in UP who offered to supply an entire arsenal of weapons
Sample this.
ARMS DEALER: Tell us what you want.
TEHELKA: We need 40 AK-47s and AK-56s, some grenades, 9mm and .32 bore pistols.
ARMS DEALER: Fine, you'll get them.
TEHELKA: What are your rates?
ARMS DEALER: The AKs will cost you around Rs 70,000 each and the 9mms and .32 bores will cost you in the range of Rs 7,000-12,000.
THE CONVERSATION might be straight out of a Bollywood masala flick. You might even think it was happening in some strife-torn country where arms dealing and terror were everyday matters. Not, surely, in India; not, surely, outside of Jammu and Kashmir, and most certainly not just 120 km from New Delhi in a village in Muzaffarnagar in western Uttar Pradesh.
Early this New Year's day, four unidentified terrorists, reportedly armed with hand grenades and AK-47 rifles, attacked a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp at Rampur in UP, killing seven CRPF personnel and a civilian. In the aftermath, experts and the Central and state governments concurred that UP was fast becoming one of terror's new hotbeds. What they did not say was how, over the years, the state had become a safe harbour for terrorist sleeper cells and a well-worn route for smuggling arms from neighbouring Nepal.
The TEHELKA investigation team had been getting information for some time that several arms rackets were operating in UP, specifically in towns like Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Azamgarh and Rampur. These rackets not only dealt in small weapons like .32 revolvers or desi kattas, but in the far more lethal AK-47s and AK-56s.
Our team decided to embark on an operation to check if these claims were true. We decided, at random, to start our investigation from Muzaffarnagar. The results were alarming.
When we reached Muzaffarnagar, our local contact put us in touch over the phone with a man named Rashid Khan. Our contact told us that Rashid was a middleman between arms dealers and buyers and had been told that we were cronies of an east UP gangster and were looking to purchase sophisticated weapons for our gang. Rashid did a crosscheck on us to make sure we were genuine buyers, not from the police or the media. Money, perhaps, outweighed other considerations, for it didn't take much to convince him of our antecedents - while our source had told us Rashid could arrange meetings with arms dealers at very short notice, we were made to wait nearly a week as we were first-timers and Rashid wanted to be doubly sure of us.
On the fifth day, our source called to tell us to get ready for the meeting. We were to meet him at a bus-stand near Kairana village, approximately 50 km from the town. Kairana is notorious in the area for housing small-scale country-made weapons factories; it has not hitherto been reported, however, that one can also procure more sophisticated weaponry here. We met our source at the bus-stand, from where he took us up a narrow bylane into the village. After we had driven about five km, he asked us to stop and leave our vehicle at the entrance to a dense sugarcane field.
WE ENTERED the field and walked until we reached an open area where our source refused to accompany us further. He asked us to stay put and that Rashid knew we were there and would send someone to guide us further. Shortly thereafter, a teenaged boy emerged from the field. We approached him and had the following conversation:
TEHELKA: Rashid has sent us.
BOY: Where are you from and what do you want?
TEHELKA: We're here to meet bhai jaan (the arms dealer).
BOY: So you're here to meet him? Have you brought any weapons?
TEHELKA: Why don't you find out, check us. BOY: Let me see.
After an intensive body search, the boy led us up a path through the cane field. We had walked just a little ahead when a loud voice told us to turn off the path and enter the field. A few metres into the field, we were surrounded by at least four heavily-armed men all with their faces covered. We spoke to their leader, telling him Rashid had sent us and had said that he could provide us the weapons we wanted. We asked the gang leader what weapons he dealt in and what were their rates. Then followed the exchange quoted above, where we learned that buying AK-47s and 56s would cost us Rs 70,000 each and that grenades and 9mm and .32 bore pistols were available in the range of Rs 7,000-12,000.
We asked where the weapons came from. Pat came the reply: Pakistan. That's what everybody says, we replied. They come from Pakistan, the leader reiterated, via the Nepal border into Gorakhpur from where they are distributed to dealers in different towns across the state. To get an AK-series rifle, we would have to place our order 15 days in advance; for smaller weapons, however, supply and delivery would be no problem despite the heightened police activity in the area following recent incidents of terror in the state. The leader then told us to meet a contact of his in a village named Jolla, about 30 km from Muzaffarnagar, with whom we were to place our order.
When we asked about the rate of arms sales in the area, the gang leader told us that business these days was quite dull but was great during election time. Immediately after this, he became suspicious of us and said he was talking to us only because we came through Rashid, or he would have never entertained us
in the first place. He told us that we would have to make an advance payment to the person we were to meet at Jolla whose details he would reveal to Rashid and who, in turn, would inform us about the next meeting.
He also warned us to be focused on what we were there for and not ask too many questions; after this, he disappeared with his gang into the field.
We returned to our vehicle and went next, with our source, to Jolla. There our source called Rashid who told us to go to a nearby dhaba. As soon as we got
there, we saw a police patrol van parked outside. We then waited for about an hour, at which point Rashid called our source, apparently enraged and accusing us of being police personnel. Our source tried to mollify him and convince him that the police van had been there by sheer coincidence. Pacified at last, Rashid told us to wait a couple of days before he went further with the deal.
OUR WAIT CAME to an end three days later. At around noon, our source came to our hotel and asked us to accompany him to Jolla. We drove to the furthest end of the village where, like at the first meeting, our source left us near a field. We were to proceed to a dilapidated structure where he said we would meet our pointperson. When we reached the building, we met two armed men who had their faces covered. After a few introductory exchanges, we tried to get them to reveal their faces for our hidden camera. This having failed, we went quickly to our point, asking how the transaction would be effected. Getting the AKs would be difficult for the time being, we were told, because there was an extra vigil out on such sales. But, the men assured us, we would definitely get what we wanted, whatever it may be.
We finally placed our order for AK-47s and 56s, pistols and grenades, and gave the dealers an advance of Rs 15,000. They assured us that the consignment would be ready in a week and would be supplied to us wherever we wanted it one of their men was already in Nepal to receive an AK consignment, they said.
They also told us that the AKs were first dismantled in Nepal and then smuggled into India, where they were reassembled. The two dealers also showed us a few .32 revolvers and jokingly asked us to take one as a token of the deal.
These two meetings were sufficient for a glimpse of the flourishing arms trade going on in Uttar Pradesh. It does not take much to infer that bigger rackets are freely operating in the state. The investigation also puts a question mark on the functioning of the State machinery and the police in UP. If, with a little homework, we at TEHELKA could reach these dealers with such ease, what are the police doing?
From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 3, Dated Jan 26, 2008
*****************************************************************
Link >>>
Guys,
Came across this story.............makes intersting reading..........as to how easily sophisticated arms are circulating in the country and the average Indian citizen has to run form pillar to post to get an Arms Licence.Really a very sorry state of affairs we have here.
Link >>>
Regards,
Vinayaka
ANURAG TRIPATHI and ETMAD A. KHAN met smugglers in UP who offered to supply an entire arsenal of weapons
Sample this.
ARMS DEALER: Tell us what you want.
TEHELKA: We need 40 AK-47s and AK-56s, some grenades, 9mm and .32 bore pistols.
ARMS DEALER: Fine, you'll get them.
TEHELKA: What are your rates?
ARMS DEALER: The AKs will cost you around Rs 70,000 each and the 9mms and .32 bores will cost you in the range of Rs 7,000-12,000.
THE CONVERSATION might be straight out of a Bollywood masala flick. You might even think it was happening in some strife-torn country where arms dealing and terror were everyday matters. Not, surely, in India; not, surely, outside of Jammu and Kashmir, and most certainly not just 120 km from New Delhi in a village in Muzaffarnagar in western Uttar Pradesh.
Early this New Year's day, four unidentified terrorists, reportedly armed with hand grenades and AK-47 rifles, attacked a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp at Rampur in UP, killing seven CRPF personnel and a civilian. In the aftermath, experts and the Central and state governments concurred that UP was fast becoming one of terror's new hotbeds. What they did not say was how, over the years, the state had become a safe harbour for terrorist sleeper cells and a well-worn route for smuggling arms from neighbouring Nepal.
The TEHELKA investigation team had been getting information for some time that several arms rackets were operating in UP, specifically in towns like Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Azamgarh and Rampur. These rackets not only dealt in small weapons like .32 revolvers or desi kattas, but in the far more lethal AK-47s and AK-56s.
Our team decided to embark on an operation to check if these claims were true. We decided, at random, to start our investigation from Muzaffarnagar. The results were alarming.
When we reached Muzaffarnagar, our local contact put us in touch over the phone with a man named Rashid Khan. Our contact told us that Rashid was a middleman between arms dealers and buyers and had been told that we were cronies of an east UP gangster and were looking to purchase sophisticated weapons for our gang. Rashid did a crosscheck on us to make sure we were genuine buyers, not from the police or the media. Money, perhaps, outweighed other considerations, for it didn't take much to convince him of our antecedents - while our source had told us Rashid could arrange meetings with arms dealers at very short notice, we were made to wait nearly a week as we were first-timers and Rashid wanted to be doubly sure of us.
On the fifth day, our source called to tell us to get ready for the meeting. We were to meet him at a bus-stand near Kairana village, approximately 50 km from the town. Kairana is notorious in the area for housing small-scale country-made weapons factories; it has not hitherto been reported, however, that one can also procure more sophisticated weaponry here. We met our source at the bus-stand, from where he took us up a narrow bylane into the village. After we had driven about five km, he asked us to stop and leave our vehicle at the entrance to a dense sugarcane field.
WE ENTERED the field and walked until we reached an open area where our source refused to accompany us further. He asked us to stay put and that Rashid knew we were there and would send someone to guide us further. Shortly thereafter, a teenaged boy emerged from the field. We approached him and had the following conversation:
TEHELKA: Rashid has sent us.
BOY: Where are you from and what do you want?
TEHELKA: We're here to meet bhai jaan (the arms dealer).
BOY: So you're here to meet him? Have you brought any weapons?
TEHELKA: Why don't you find out, check us. BOY: Let me see.
After an intensive body search, the boy led us up a path through the cane field. We had walked just a little ahead when a loud voice told us to turn off the path and enter the field. A few metres into the field, we were surrounded by at least four heavily-armed men all with their faces covered. We spoke to their leader, telling him Rashid had sent us and had said that he could provide us the weapons we wanted. We asked the gang leader what weapons he dealt in and what were their rates. Then followed the exchange quoted above, where we learned that buying AK-47s and 56s would cost us Rs 70,000 each and that grenades and 9mm and .32 bore pistols were available in the range of Rs 7,000-12,000.
We asked where the weapons came from. Pat came the reply: Pakistan. That's what everybody says, we replied. They come from Pakistan, the leader reiterated, via the Nepal border into Gorakhpur from where they are distributed to dealers in different towns across the state. To get an AK-series rifle, we would have to place our order 15 days in advance; for smaller weapons, however, supply and delivery would be no problem despite the heightened police activity in the area following recent incidents of terror in the state. The leader then told us to meet a contact of his in a village named Jolla, about 30 km from Muzaffarnagar, with whom we were to place our order.
When we asked about the rate of arms sales in the area, the gang leader told us that business these days was quite dull but was great during election time. Immediately after this, he became suspicious of us and said he was talking to us only because we came through Rashid, or he would have never entertained us
in the first place. He told us that we would have to make an advance payment to the person we were to meet at Jolla whose details he would reveal to Rashid and who, in turn, would inform us about the next meeting.
He also warned us to be focused on what we were there for and not ask too many questions; after this, he disappeared with his gang into the field.
We returned to our vehicle and went next, with our source, to Jolla. There our source called Rashid who told us to go to a nearby dhaba. As soon as we got
there, we saw a police patrol van parked outside. We then waited for about an hour, at which point Rashid called our source, apparently enraged and accusing us of being police personnel. Our source tried to mollify him and convince him that the police van had been there by sheer coincidence. Pacified at last, Rashid told us to wait a couple of days before he went further with the deal.
OUR WAIT CAME to an end three days later. At around noon, our source came to our hotel and asked us to accompany him to Jolla. We drove to the furthest end of the village where, like at the first meeting, our source left us near a field. We were to proceed to a dilapidated structure where he said we would meet our pointperson. When we reached the building, we met two armed men who had their faces covered. After a few introductory exchanges, we tried to get them to reveal their faces for our hidden camera. This having failed, we went quickly to our point, asking how the transaction would be effected. Getting the AKs would be difficult for the time being, we were told, because there was an extra vigil out on such sales. But, the men assured us, we would definitely get what we wanted, whatever it may be.
We finally placed our order for AK-47s and 56s, pistols and grenades, and gave the dealers an advance of Rs 15,000. They assured us that the consignment would be ready in a week and would be supplied to us wherever we wanted it one of their men was already in Nepal to receive an AK consignment, they said.
They also told us that the AKs were first dismantled in Nepal and then smuggled into India, where they were reassembled. The two dealers also showed us a few .32 revolvers and jokingly asked us to take one as a token of the deal.
These two meetings were sufficient for a glimpse of the flourishing arms trade going on in Uttar Pradesh. It does not take much to infer that bigger rackets are freely operating in the state. The investigation also puts a question mark on the functioning of the State machinery and the police in UP. If, with a little homework, we at TEHELKA could reach these dealers with such ease, what are the police doing?
From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 3, Dated Jan 26, 2008
*****************************************************************
Link >>>
Guys,
Came across this story.............makes intersting reading..........as to how easily sophisticated arms are circulating in the country and the average Indian citizen has to run form pillar to post to get an Arms Licence.Really a very sorry state of affairs we have here.
Link >>>
Regards,
Vinayaka
