Indians For Guns

LUCKNOW: The Anti-Terrorist Squad of Uttar Pradesh and their counterpart in Mumbai arrested a retired senior airlines official for operating an international gun running racket and recovered a cache of parts and magazines of handguns of some of the most sought after international brands. The accused, Elvin Disa, who retired from service in 1991, is believed to be more than 80 years old-the oldest high profile individual to be arrested ever by the Uttar Pradesh Police for an international organised crime.

Investigators recovered dozen-odd pistol grips, a number of magazines of different bores and cartridges of .32 and .22 bore guns from Alvin's Dadar West apartment.

Though additional director general of police (ADG) ATS UP Arun Kumar confirmed the arrest, he refused to provide further details on grounds that the accused was being questioned by the investigators and the ATS would share the details once they were through with the verification of the information extracted from the accused. The ATS was expected to produce Elvin before a local court in Mumbai, seek his transit remand and bring him to Lucknow for further interrogation and investigation.

The arrest came in the follow-up investigations of a unique gun running racket that UP ATS had busted recently in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh with the arrest of three persons. The highlight of this racket was that the gang used to procure repaired and condemned handguns of world's top brand names at throwaway prices from international markets in Singapore and Canada. The weapon was then dismantled and most of its parts were smuggled into India. Here, the weapon was reassembled and the missing ones were fabricated using some of the world's most modern high-precision machines like Electronic Device Machines (EDMs) and skilled hands.

On April 18, 2013 the ATS had arrested Mohammad Khalid, Mohamad Junaid Arshad and Vimal Kumar Vishwakarma, all natives of Lucknow and Kanpur.

The cops recovered three assembled pistols, one sample pistol of Bareta Company, four frames of pistol, arms licences, and other items in a large quantity besides diagrams, photo albums, cash, etc. In their interrogation, the accused unveiled the involvement of a retired airlines officer Alvin Disa and Shivanandan Shetty, both based in Mumbai. The gang had confessed to have smuggled and sold at least 160 such imported weapons including those of prohibited bore that used exclusively by the police in India.

"80-year-old held for smuggling gun parts"

MUMBAI: In a joint operation on Monday, Lucknow anti-terrorist squad (ATS) sleuths and the Dadar police arrested a former flight engineer from his Dadar home on his 80th birthday, for allegedly smuggling spare parts of imported weapons from Canada, Malayasia and Singapore and selling them for 13 times more the international market rates.

Alvin Dsa sold the smuggled goods to Lucknow's Mohammed Khalid who runs a firm, National Gunhouse, which "repairs weapons". Acting on a tip-off, the Lucknow ATS discovered that Khalid had illegally been selling weapons to gangsters and politicians in the last three years. "After his arrest on April 17, Khalid revealed Dsa's name. He said Dsa supplied him the rare imported weapon parts. Khalid used those parts to manufacture weapons in Kanpur and sold them under fake documents, claiming the guns to be foreign-made. Around 160 weapons were sold to Naxalites, gangsters and politicians for Rs 3-4 crore," Lucknow ATS senior inspector T B Singh told TOI. The different makes sold included Lama, Colt Walker pistol, Beretta and CZ. The guns were priced at Rs 6.5 lakh to Rs 15 lakh.

The police said Dsa used his 30 years' of airlines contact to get past the Customs and the police while bringing in the consignments from abroad. "Dsa contacted Khalid through arrested gangster Vijay Palande's aide Sivanandan Shetty. Initially, he supplied the parts to Shetty, but after his arrest, Dsa directly dealt with Khalid," Singh said, adding he kept an eye on the racket for several months before arresting Khalid. "Dsa will be produced in a Mumbai court on Wednesday for his transit remand. He will be taken to Lucknow to get details of the racket's functioning," he said.

During interrogation, D'sa said he packed the weapon parts like magazines, slides, triggers in a toy gun to hoodwink officials at airport check points. "On every weapon part, he earned 13 times more the amount he spent to buy it. From his Dadar home, we seized 19 magazines and 239 cartridges he bought from Canada on April 27," said the police.

TC wrote:Gentlemen,
[SNIP]Now that the weapon has been endorsed against a valid license, it is legal or illegal ?

The Enforcement Directorate is trailing a few leads...

Cheers
TC

airgun_novice wrote:

TC wrote:Gentlemen,
[SNIP]Now that the weapon has been endorsed against a valid license, it is legal or illegal ?

The Enforcement Directorate is trailing a few leads...

Cheers
TC

Dear TC, I would vote for its "legal" status as it is akin to black money turned white through Kisan Vikas Patra.
Of course, not to be construed as legal advice... Interesting case, might be useful as an precedent.
regs
A.

vijayshimla wrote:Ours is a very strange nation- still operating on Instruction left behind by our colonial masters. The local Arms industry has been ham strung- with the result that India makes is fifth rate junk in name of Sporting arms as well as military arms- like INSAS- a joke all over the world, and a hungry tiger like China- which used to be far behind us in 1940 in Arms manufacturing - is now stalking this nation- where the Army is awaiting arms buy from abroad- so that they can defend us-- only way- bring private entrepreneur in Arms Industry- Free Indian shooter from clutches of IOF, and let there be import of weapons are reasonable duty- for valid license holders- only then will gimmickry like this stop.