Three Uttar Pradesh cops arrested in arms smuggling scam
July 16th, 2010 - 1:50 pm ICT by IANSLucknow, July 16 (IANS) Three policemen have been arrested from Uttar Pradesh for their suspected involvement in what is known here as the cartridges scam which involved smuggling of arms from government armouries and selling them to Maoists, an official said Friday.
The scam was busted in April after the arrest of a retired sub-inspector Yashodanandan Singh from Rampur, some 300 km from here. Yashodanandan was the kingpin of the racket.
Of the three armourers arrested Thursday, Om Prakash and Vinod Kumar were arrested from Varanasi, while Banwari Lal was arrested from Kanpur Thursday by a police team of Rampur district.
“The three armourers have been arrested on the inputs provided by Yashodanandan, who is the prime-accused in the case,” police inspector R.P. Singh Friday told reporters in Rampur.
“Preliminary investigations reveal, the three could also be involved in smuggling of ammunition from government armouries, which were later passed on to Yashodanandan through various channels,” he added.
The scam was unearthed by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) in April. Besides Yashodanandan, five others, including two Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers, three police personnel were arrested from Rampur, Moradabad and Jhansi districts for allegedly selling arms and ammunition to Maoists.
Over 5,000 live cartridges of pistols, carbine, AK 47, SLR (Self-Loading Rifle) and other weapons were recovered along with around 250 kg of shells and other arms components from their possession.
- Two CRPF troopers among four held for arms smuggling (Second Lead) - Apr 30, 2010
- Two CRPF troopers, three cops held for selling arms (Third Lead) - Apr 30, 2010
- Constable held for supplying cartridges to Maoists - Jul 30, 2010
- Four cops held for supplying arms to Maoists - May 14, 2010
- Man held for supplying arms to Maoists - May 29, 2010
- CRPF officer suspended in arms smuggling scam - May 07, 2010
- Cartridges missing from Uttar Pradesh police stations - May 06, 2010
- Three police personnel nabbed on suspicion of supplying arm to Maoists - May 01, 2010
- Four Maoists surrender in Uttar Pradesh - Jul 22, 2011
- Youth arrested with cartridges - Sep 26, 2011
- Three held with 100 cartridges and firearms - Feb 16, 2011
- Gang supplying arms to Maoists busted (Lead) - May 02, 2011
- Three held with 500 cartridges in Uttar Pradesh - Jan 24, 2011
- Maoist leader arrested in UP - May 29, 2012
- Two CRPF troopers held for smuggling explosives - Apr 30, 2010
Tags: ak 47, armourers, armouries, carbine, jhansi, kanpur, kingpin, lal, maoists, moradabad, om prakash, police inspector, police team, r p singh, reserve police, self loading rifle, stf, uttar pradesh, varanasi, vinod kumar