The Capital, in the bargain, has emerged as the new transit route for firearms procured from the militancy-infested areas of the North-East for supply to the Mumbai underworld, sources point out.

``There is an acute shortage of weapons in Mumbai. They pay money to the terrorist groups in the North-East and forward them to Mumbai via Delhi,'' DCP Special Cell, Ashok Chand, reveals.

The Capital, sources within the police point out, offers many incentives as a transit route. ``These people strike in Mumbai and come back to Delhi to hide. It's the basic character of the metro that they prefer. Actually, the kind of anonymity it offers. Besides, they are slowly spreading their tentacles in Delhi because theyknow one day Mumbai will dry up and they will have to target Delhi,'' a senior police official comments. He says with the fact that Chotta Rajan's men have been around for sometime coming to light, the police are now probing the possibility of members from other Mumbai gangs operating from here. ``That cannot be ruled out,'' he adds.

Sources in the Special Branch point out that sometime before the arrests, the gangsters spent over a fortnight at Dimapur in Nagaland and struck deals for the supply of arms with the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland. ``They employ local Nepalese boys who double as boot-leggers and go-betweens. That's how three of the five arrested are Nepalese,'' sources add. ``We are going to be in touch with Mumbai police constantly from this point,'' says DCP Ashok Chand.