Century-old gun shop’s 3 owners arrested for ‘illegal arms trading’ in Kolkata

Earlier in February, two employees of the shop, Jayanta Dutta and Shantanu Sarkar, were arrested in a case of alleged ammunition recovery in South 24 Parganas. The shop, which is located within 100 metres of the Kolkata police headquarters at Lalbazar, was searched and sealed that month.

The alleged ammunition recovery on August 4 led to the arrest of resident Madhusudan Mukherjee, also known as Liton. The investigation began after an earlier alleged seizure of weapons in the Khardah area led police to an arms dealer in Munger. Questioning the dealer brought Mukherjee’s name to the forefront, police said.

The Barrackpore Commissionerate’s Intelligence Department and local police raided his residence, “Pratibha Manzil”. Initial findings suggested that Mukherjee, who reportedly sourced some of the firearms from Purulia, was allegedly storing the weapons and cartridges with the intent to sell them.

After this recovery, STF took over the case. The task force found that the shop is “fully involved in illegal arms trading”. “The stock registers of the shop are being checked for discrepancies in procurement and sale of both firearms and ammunition. We found severe discrepancies in accounts,” an STF official said.

In the February case, the home of Haji Rashid Molla, a businessman residing at Jibantala in South 24 Parganas district, was raided and 190 rounds of 7.65 mm pistol cartridge made by the Indian Ordnance Factory was allegedly seized from the house, allegedly along with a 12-bore shotgun and nine shells meant for the weapon. Other than Dutta and Sarkar, Molla and three others were arrested.