PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE /Dehradun
The Special Task Force (STF) has uncovered a fake arms licence racket in the State. STF senior superintendent of police Ajai Singh said that this is one of the biggest cases of fake arms licences detected in Uttarakhand so far. A total 10 people had allegedly used fake arms licences that were shown as being issued from Shahjahanpur district in Uttar Pradesh, he said.
“The accused used these licences to purchase firearms from a gun house in Kashipur, Udham Singh Nagar district. However, verification from the Shahjahanpur district magistrate’s office revealed that no such licences had been issued in the names of the accused. The licence numbers were found to belong to other individuals, indicating that the documents were forged,” Singh said.
A large-scale verification drive has been underway for the past two months to check the authenticity of arms licences transferred from other States to Uttarakhand, he said.
Investigators also found that the accused had allegedly prepared fake documents by showing local addresses in Shahjahanpur on Aadhaar cards and other records. These forged documents were then used to obtain fake arms licences and buy weapons.
Based on the evidence collected during the investigation, STF has registered a case at Kashipur Kotwali under relevant sections related to fraud, forgery, use of forged documents and criminal conspiracy. A joint team of STF, Kumaon and Udham Singh Nagar police has been formed to arrest the accused and identify others linked to the network.
