Arms licences of 110 deceased men cancelled in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon
Jalgaon Resident Deputy Collector Sopan Kasar said that of the 270 licences cancelled in all, some belonged to people who died 10-15 years ago but their families still possessed the firearm.
Kasar said families whose members had arms licences should have alerted the police and the district administration about it. (Representational image/AP)
The Jalgaon district administration in Maharashtra has cancelled the arms licence of 110 individuals who had passed away but whose families were found to be still in possession of the firearms. In a month-long exercise, the administration cancelled the licences of a total of 270 individuals for various reasons.
“In all, we had issued 1,200 arms licences. More than a month ago, we conducted a review as to how many of the licence holders are alive, how many left the district and how many deposited their arms with the police,” Jalgaon District Collector Ayush Prasad told The Indian Express.
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Prasad said the Sub-Divisional Magistrate issued notices to around 380 individuals who had arms licences in their name. “We issued notices to them and also published it in newspapers. We then conducted proper hearings and cancelled 270 licences under the Arms Act for various reasons. As of now, these 270 are not eligible to possess arms,” he said.
Resident Deputy Collector Sopan Kasar said, “Of the 270 licences cancelled, 110 belonged to individuals who had passed away. Some of them died 10-15 years ago but their families still possessed the licence and guns. Under the Arms Act, these families should have deposited the weapon with the police.”
Kasar said families whose members had arms licences should have alerted the police and the district administration about it. “However, they failed to do so,” he said. The district administration is the licensing authority in the matter and has the right to renew the licence every five years once it is satisfied that the concerned individual meets all the required criteria.
“Some of the licence holders had not renewed the licence after five years, some were not traceable at their given addresses, a few did not attend the hearings, one of them refused to accept the notice, two had criminal cases against themselves,” he said.
The resident deputy collector said 16 of the individuals were found to be over 80 years old. “Arms licence is not issued to anyone aged above 80,” he added.
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An arms licence is issued depending on the threat perception to an individual, Kasar said. “Some took an arms licence because of threat perception, others had the licence from their father or grandfather, and some took it as a matter of prestige.” In all, they asked 1,110 individuals to deposit their firearms with the collectorate during the election period.
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