New Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS): Keeping in mind the upcoming festival season and in order to cut the supply of illegal firearms and ammunition in Delhi-NCR, special efforts are being made by the Delhi Police to track and arrest illegal arms suppliers.

Several gangs are indulging in supply of illegal weapons to the criminals in Delhi-NCR and the surrounding areas. In the past couple of days, the Delhi Police have seized as many as 46 pistols and many live cartridges from criminals arrested by the Special Cell.

A Special Cell team has arrested an inter-state firearms trafficker by the name of Sajid, a resident of Bharatpur in Rajasthan, and recovered 21 .32 bore semiautomatic pistols and 40 live cartridges from his possession. The weapons were meant for supply to criminals in Delhi-NCR. A trap was laid and Sajid was apprehended from Shastri Park in north-east Delhi.

"He used to procure arms and ammunition from Dhar in Madhya Pradesh and supply them to criminals in Delhi-NCR and Uttar Pradesh. He used to buy .32 bore pistols for Rs 7,000-8,000 per piece, depending on the quality of the weapon, and sell them further for Rs 20,000-25,000. He had been arrested before but was released on bail due to the Covid-19 pandemic," said P.S. Kushwah, DCP, Special Cell.

Sajid has been involved in this illegal business of arms supplying for the last four years.

On October 19, the Special Cell of Delhi Police had arrested a criminal with 25 illegal semi-automatic pistols.