Kolkata, Jul 24 (IANS): Kolkata Police, on Monday, claimed to have busted a major illegal arms racket by arresting a prime dealer and his two associates.

City police sources said that the arrested armed dealer has been identified as Akhtar Hossain.

Imtiaz Muhammad and Azhar Ali are the other arrested. The police are tight-lipped over the exact date and time of the arrests.

However, it was learnt that they were arrested from an area under the Narendrapur Police Station in South 24 Parganas district in West Bengal.

The investigating officials suspect that they are probably associated with a local underground armed manufacturing unit, where firearms parts are assembled and then released in the market for sale through a particular network.

Currently, the police are interrogating the three arrested individuals to extract more details in this connection.

They also doubt that the three arrested persons are actually part of a major illegal arms racket based out of Munger in Bihar, which had been traditionally known as an illegal arms manufacturing and trading hub.

“As per initial information available with our sleuths, Hossain operated both from West Bengal and Jharkhand. His task was to act as a link between the end purchasers and the manufacturers, finalize the deals and then arrange for the supply of the consignments,” said a source in the city police in the knowhow of things.

The police also suspect that the arrested persons have played a key role in supplying arms to different miscreants before the recently-concluded polls for the three- tier panchayat polls.

They also feel that the arrest of the trio is expected to be a major catch on part of the sleuths through which the illegal arms supply network in the state can be deactivated to a great extent.