How a fight over Ganesh idol led Delhi Police to an illegal arms factory in the fields of Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh

The reason behind the melee? The woman’s brother had refused to buy the Ganesh idol his friend had wanted for the locality’s Ganesh puja.

The following day, the Delhi Police would apprehend the boy on the basis of the woman’s complaint. When asked where he procured the gun from, the boy pointed the police towards a man called Bunty in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. This led the Delhi Police on a chase that would end in them busting an arms factory hidden in rural Aligarh.

During interrogation, Hanvir had disclosed that he was involved in the manufacturing of illegal firearms for the last 15-20 years.

On Monday, the Delhi Police team raided the factory in a field on Jattari Pishawar Road in Aligarh and arrested Hanvir, the man running the operation. It was from here, the police alleged, that the teenager had bought the gun.

“Two rooms were found constructed and locked from the outside. The team broke the locks and found that illegal firearms were being manufactured at a mass level by one Hanvir. Six desi kattas (country-made pistols), 12 desi kattas without screws, raw material of more than 250 desi kattas, five live cartridges, and machinery and equipment were recovered from the factory,” said Raja Banthia, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), North.

How a fight over Ganesh idol led Delhi Police to an illegal arms factory in the fields of Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh@UpasikaS reportshttps://t.co/giITeYJXam

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During interrogation, Hanvir had disclosed that he was involved in the manufacturing of illegal firearms for the last 15-20 years, and he frequently changed the location of the factory, he added. “The present factory of illegal firearms was being run by him for the last one month. He had sold more than 1,200 illegal firearms in the last few years to different persons,” said DCP Banthia.

In August, the Delhi Police travelled to Aligarh to trace Bunty and, with the help of local intelligence and technical surveillance, tracked him to Ganga Garhi village and arrested him on August 28, the police said. He told the police that he had procured illegal arms and ammunition from a man named Bijender in Mathura.

The police would apprehend Bijender, 61, two days later in Mathura. During interrogation, Bijender allegedly told the police that a man named Hanvir was running an illegal arms factory in Aligarh. Surveillance of Bijender’s phone also revealed a video of the factory where more than 70 firearms were manufactured.

The police said that further investigation is underway to trace the wider network of suppliers and buyers.