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Agartala, Nov 25 (IANS) Senior police and intelligence officials on Tuesday continued the interrogation of three arms smugglers, including an arms supplier from Bihar, who were arrested by Tripura Police after they seized two small firearms and four magazines in Agartala. The officers provided this information.
Three arrested arms smugglers involved in interstate arms trade were produced before a local court on Tuesday, which remanded them to five days’ police custody, a police officer said.
“Senior police and intelligence officers will continue to interrogate the three arrested persons to ascertain details regarding arms smuggling and their plan,” the officer said. He said there was suspicion that the weapons were intended to be smuggled into Bangladesh.
Tripura Police arrested three people, including an alleged arms supplier from Bihar, after seizing two small firearms and four magazines during routine patrolling in Arundhati Nagar on the outskirts of Agartala on Monday night.
West Tripura district Superintendent of Police Namit Pathak had said that the arrests were made when the officer-in-charge (OC) of Arundhati Nagar police station was conducting routine patrolling near Bandeshwar bridge areas on the bypass road.
The OC observed suspicious activity of three persons and upon investigation recovered weapons along with three mobile phones.
The arrested persons have been identified as Tinku Debbarma (35) and Sumenda Debbarma (40), residents of Barkathal in West Tripura, and Sibash Kumar (29), resident of Dumeria Khuria Khuria Kurd in Bihar, who allegedly brought firearms to the state.
The district police chief said a case is being registered under the Arms Act, and preliminary investigation indicates that the seized weapons were brought from Bihar earlier in the day.
“Only after further investigation can we confirm how the weapons reached here, for what purpose and to whom they were to be delivered,” Pathak said.
Police sources also said that the Arundhati Nagar area, located close to the Agartala railway station, has seen several arrests of arms dealers over the years, with most of the cases involving smuggling of illegal firearms into the state, often through train routes, especially from Nagaland.
Meanwhile, on May 8, eight pistols and 16 empty magazines were recovered from an express train at Agartala railway station. The Government Railway Police (GRP) and Railway Protection Force (RPF) in a joint operation on May 8 recovered eight pistols and 16 empty magazines from the Tripura Sundari Express train after it reached Agartala railway station from Firozpur in Punjab.
“Eight pistols and 16 empty magazines were recovered from two abandoned bags,” a GRP official said, adding that there was no trace or place of manufacture of the pistols and magazines. All eight pistol points are identical to the 9mm pistol.
–IANS
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