12 Kolkata: The Bengal STF on Sunday arrested another person and seized a double-barrelled gun and four rounds of live factory-made ammunition of 12 bore calibre, which they suspect has been smuggled out of the century-old gun shop NC Daw and Company. STF said the shop has been sealed and three persons, believed to the owners, have been summoned for questioning.
On Friday, the STF arrested four persons, including a shop employee, while they were trafficking cartridges. Authorities also seized 190 rounds of 7.65 mm cartridges, a double-barrelled gun, and nine rounds of ammunition, apart from Rs 30,000.
"We interrogated all four and, based on their information, we arrested Faruk Mallick (30) of Haroa on Saturday night. The gun seized from him was sold to him by Hazi Rashid Molla, who has already been arrested. It is suspected Molla illegally procured the gun from the same Dalhousie-based licenced gun shop," said SP (operations) Indrajit Basu.
Molla's family said he has a gun licence. "However, he could not produce it at the time of arrest. But the fact that Molla did have a licence earlier cannot be ruled out as he used that licence to strike a deal with the accused employee of the gun shop," an officer said.
The police said the shop will remain sealed till cops go through the stock. A senior officer said the lead on a second gun shop — in central Kolkata — has not fructified yet.
The seizures on Friday and Saturday make it the largest seizure of cartridges. "A legal gun licence holder is allowed to buy 25-100 cartridges each year. At times, the entire quota is not used while a few cartridges are used for testing. The accused manipulated these sold cartridges, showing them to be sold/used for testing by genuine licence holders and then sold to criminals at Rs 500-Rs 600 per cartridge after buying them for Rs 350 from the gun shop employee," an officer said.
A special STF team, acting on a tip-off, raided Abdul Rashid Gazi's house in Ishwaripur, Jibantala, recovering a large quantity of gun ammunition. The STF reported that Jayanta Duta, the gun shop employee, arrived in Jibantala on Friday with cartridges to hand over to others. During the exchange, an STF team intervened, recovering a significant amount of cartridges and a double-barrelled gun from the accuseds' bags.
An officer said the accused admitted they planned to transport the cartridges from Kolkata to Jibantala. Investigators are checking if others from the shop were involved.