Kukshi (Madhya Pradesh): A police team from Dhar on Monday made a sensational revelation in the case of inter-state illegal arms smuggling. Addressing the mediapersons here at the district headquarters, Dhar SP Manoj Singh said that Ishwar Singh was caught recently. He was taken into police custody to get more information on the case and during interrogation police got some crucial information about his illegal business and cash transaction.
Notably, Ishwar Singh was arrested by Kukshi police on September 26. The department also engaged the cybercrime branch to unearth more information on the case.
At that time the arrested trio was identified as Ishwar Singh Barnala, Takhdeer Singh Barnala and Jatan Singh Chhabra of Bariya village. Ishwar has a criminal past with 35 cases registered against him with police stations across five states.
The police also seized 140 country-made 12-bore pistols, and 13 live cartridges, along with a motorcycle and equipment used in the illegal arms manufacturing. Cash worth Rs 31,56,500 was also seized. The raid was conducted following Dhar SP Manoj Kumar Singh's directives to identify persons involved in the illegal arms trade.
Following subsequent interrogation, the trio led the team to Bariya forest and helped recover another 102 country-made pistols with 12 bores and equipment used in the manufacturing of firearms. The police team also reached Ishwar Singh's house during the investigation, where he made a window on the second floor of his main house, which he used to run from and jump into his secret place underground. According to SP Singh, till now a total of 42 crimes have been registered against gang leader Ishwar Singh including 16 in Rajasthan, 15 in Madhya Pradesh, 6 in Gujarat, three in Delhi, and one each in Haryana and Karnataka.
On the arrest of accused Ishwar Singh, a total of Rs 45,000 in three cases of Gujarat, Rs 10,000 in the case of Naugaon police station of Dhar district, one case at Mandigate in Nagda Junction police station of Ujjain district and one case of Gautampura police station of Indore district, making to a total reward of Rs 58,000 had been declared on him. During interrogation, Dhar police identified gang leader Ishwar Singh and named five other accused involved in illegal firearms manufacturing and smuggling. Police announced a reward of Rs 10,000 each for the arrest of five other absconding accused.
Transactions detected from bank accounts
According to ASP Dr Inderjit Bakalwar, the team while investigating the bank accounts of accused Ishwar Singh and his fellow peddlers has gone through their bank account and found transactions of more than Rs 1.72 crores in the last three years.
The team achieved significant success in identifying all the peddlers of the gang, arresting two peddlers and seizing a total of five pieces of country-made pistols from their possession. Both the peddlers of the gang revealed this during interrogation.
Gang leader Ishwar Singh used to open bank accounts in his name and conduct money transactions through ATM and UPI (Phone Pay, Google Pay, Paytm). A total transaction of Rs 30.52 lakh was done by him using the bank account of peddler Ravi in the last year. While checking the bank account of peddler Sohan's father Rai Singh Mandloi, transactions worth Rs 15.42 lakh were found in the last three years.
Information shared with other states
SP Singh informed that all the details have been provided to Police Headquarters Bhopal and subsequently, all the crucial information has been shared with other states too.
The team contacted the concerned police station in-charge and obtained the FIR against the accused Ishwar Singh about the crime registered in the states.
Besides, correspondence was sent to the Superintendents of Police of the concerned districts regarding the arrest of accused Ishwar Singh and further action in the case.