Surat: After the scam came to light in Rajkot about history-sheeters obtaining firearms licences by exploiting procedures in northeastern states, the Surat crime branch has uncovered a similar racket, seizing 20 firearms and 93 live cartridges, and arresting five individuals.

The bust followed a raid on Gajanan Gun House in Surat, which allegedly facilitated the sale of 51 illegal weapons using bogus licences issued from Nagaland and Manipur. Among those arrested are Atul Patel—the owner of the gun house—and four others in whose names the fake licences were obtained.

Police Commissioner Anupam Singh Gahlaut stated that most of the seized weapons were .32 bore revolvers and double-barrel guns. He revealed that Patel and his accomplice Asif, based in Haryana, charged Rs 10 lakh per fake licence, with money sent via angadia to Delhi and Nagaland. During the raid, 16 weapons were found to have forged licences and were intended to be sent for entry into Nagaland records. These licences belonged to people from various cities in Gujarat, including Anand, Junagadh, Bhavnagar, and Jamnagar. Authorities also found six cases where individuals received licences without ever visiting Nagaland. Police teams are now searching for 16 more suspects linked to the racket.

Furthermore, the crime branch has formed four separate teams, one of which has been sent to Nagaland to investigate the process through which these bogus licences were issued. Authorities are also probing the unique identification numbers of the seized weapons, as some of these numbers were found to be registered on government websites. DeshGujarat