From village in Madhya Pradesh, weapons find their way to Punjab, other states

A senior Punjab Police officer claimed that of late, 75 per cent of weapons being smuggled into the state by criminal gangs originate in this hamlet of around 80 homes, most of them belonging to the Sikhligar Sikh community. Last year, the Punjab Police seized 500 made-in-Umarti weapons. Earlier this week, the Mohali police seized over 20 such pistols, so sophisticated, they say, that these could rival a Glock or a Beretta.

Over the last four months, the Maharashtra Police have arrested nine persons from neighbouring Umarti while the Madhya Pradesh Police arrested two couriers from Punjab who were allegedly smuggling weapons out of Umarti. In September, the Madhya Pradesh Police also arrested three residents of Umarti village and recovered 51 pistols and raw material worth around Rs 10 lakh.

Umarti village first came to the notice of the Punjab Police in 2017, when Delhi Police’s Special Cell arrested Mobai Devi, a labourer-turned-weapon supplier, and recovered 14 pistols from her. She had allegedly changed trains and buses to reach Delhi with her consignment. Since then, police say, there has been a steady flow of weapons from Umarti into Punjab – via trains, buses and private vehicles.

“From pistols to carbines, a host of sophisticated arms are made in Umarti and sold wholesale. We have recovered many such pistols so far from gangsters,” the officer said.

When The Indian Express visited Umarti, a man in his mid-20s, who introduced himself as “Lucky Singh”, offered a .32 calibre pistol for Rs 40,000 and a .30 mm pistol for Rs 50,000. After some hard-nosed negotiation, he agreed to sell the .32 bore pistol for Rs 20,000 and the .30 mm one for Rs 30,000 – “50 per cent in cash, the rest after delivery of the consignment”.

When asked if he had a carbine or an automatic assault rifle, Lucky said he only dealt in pistols.

Another villager spoke of the “outsiders” who come to Umarti in “big cars… People say they come here to buy weapons”.

Barwani Superintendent of Police (SP) Deepak Shukla said they had recovered 150 illegal firearms in the district this year, with most of them originating from Umarti.

“We have conducted several raids and recovered weapons from the village. We have now started naming the weapon manufacturers, along with the culprits, while registering an FIR,” he said.

Umarti sarpanch Jalam Singh denied the allegations, saying that while the villagers traditionally made weapons, most of them now run grocery shops and also do farming.

Across the border, in Maharashtra’s Chopda taluka, Assistant Superintendent of Police Krushikesh P Rawle said their police too have raided MP’s Umarti village in the past and recovered weapons.

“We have carried out several raids and have arrested people who take weapons out of Umarti,” the officer said, adding that his area falls in the route of those smuggling weapons out of the village.

ASP Rawle said that buyers usually enter and exit Umarti through Maharashtra’s Jalgaon, with the couriers taking trains and buses. He said around 10,000 to 15,000 labourers come to Jalgaon during banana harvesting season (April to late March), a movement that the weapon smugglers take advantage of to move their consignment out of the district.

The Maharashtra Police say their interrogation of some of the accused revealed that while earlier, the weapons were made inside homes in Umarti, frequent police raids have forced the manufacturers to shift their units to the dense forests that surround the village. The MP and Maharashtra police say they have identified the hideouts through satellite imagery.

The Maharashtra Police said their interrogation also revealed that Umarti villagers used scrap for manufacturing weapons and that a pistol takes four to five days to manufacture.

“They use drills, hacksaws, pipes and iron rods to make these weapons. We asked one of the accused to dismantle a pistol and he did that in seven to eight minutes,” said a Maharashtra Police officer.

An elderly resident of Maharashtra’s Umarti said, “People from the other side have been making weapons for ages. Though some of them have taken to farming over the years, their main occupation is weapon making. At least 10 youngsters from our village were arrested for working as couriers.”