PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/ Rudrapur
Following an encounter in Dineshpur of Udham Singh Nagar district in the wee hours of Saturday, police arrested two suspected illegal arms suppliers and recovered eight illegal country-made pistols, eight live cartridges, four empty cartridges and a motorcycle from their possession. During the encounter, one of the accused was shot in the left leg and was taken to the hospital for treatment.
According to police, the encounter happened when a joint team of SOG Rudrapur and Dineshpur police station was conducting an operation against illegal arms smuggling on the instructions of the senior superintendent of police Ajay Ganpati. “Early Saturday morning, upon receiving tips of two men traveling on a motorcycle towards Dineshpur via the Mahakosh-Makrandpur road with a consignment of illegal weapons from Uttar Pradesh, the police cordoned off the road and began checking.
When they attempted to stop two suspects riding a motorcycle at around 2 AM, they opened fire on the police team. They then dropped the motorcycle and ran towards the sugarcane fields. One of the duo was shot in the left leg in the police’s retaliatory fire. The police team arrested both of them,” said a police officer, adding that two accused were identified as Manoj Kumar (22) and Anmol Yadav (20), residents of Chandayan village, Bilaspur police station, Rampur district, Uttar Pradesh. Interrogation of the duo revealed their previous imprisonment.
Police recovered seven .315 bore and one .32 bore country-made pistols, eight live .315 bore cartridges, four empty cartridges and a Hero Splendor Plus motorcycle from the accused.
A case has been registered against them at the Dineshpur police station under appropriate sections, police said, adding that they are now gathering information about the source of supply of illegal weapons, potential buyers and others associated with this network.
