This is not an isolated example of illegal weapons and countrymade pistols making their way into the city.

In fact, during the last one year, the police have seized nearly two dozen illegal weapons and countrymade pistols. The contraband is smuggled into the city either from UP or Bihar.

According to the police, it is not only migrants who get cheap arms from other states but locals also procure weapons from there.

During the last one year, the police have seized 23 illegal weapons and over 100 live cartridges. According to the police, all these weapons had been smuggled from UP and Bihar.

According to the police sources, every year the police seize countrymade pistols in large numbers. As far as the seizure of countrymade pistols is concerned, the police had seized as many as 14 illegal weapons in less than two months in 2004.

Sources said it is not only the small-time criminals who use these arms but the accused in the Shingaar Cinema blast case had also procured arms and ammunition from these states.

Senior Superintendent of Police R K Jaiswal, while talking to the Newsline admitted that the countrymade pistols and illegal weapons were adding to the miseries of the police. “Though we keep a strict vigil near the railway station, bus stand and the nearby escape routes, somehow illegal weapons manage to sneak into the city. For keeping a tab on the countrymade and illegal weapons, we have to depend on our informers,” SSP Jaiswal said.

He further said whenever countrymade weapons are seized, the police go deeply into the antecedents of the accused and try to find out that from where he had procured the weapon.