Chinese knives smuggling racket busted in Delhi, 5 held with over 14K knives
Darpan News Desk IANS, 27 Jul, 2022 12:40 PM
New Delhi, July 27 (IANS) A Chinese knives smuggling racket was busted here with arrest of five people, Delhi Police said on Wednesday, adding that a total of 14,053 illegal button-actuated knives were seized from their possession.
The accused were identified as Mohd Sahil, 28, Mohd Waseem, 18, Mohd Yusuf, 29, and Ashish Chawla, 43.
Deputy Commissioner of Police, South, Benita Mary Jaiker said that the matter came to notice when a PCR call was received on July 18, reporting that a courier package having 80 knives was found dropped in C.R. Park area.
On investigation, when the police analysed CCTV footage, it was revealed that the bag with the knives in it had fallen off from motorcycle of a delivery boy. It was found that each recovered knife was packed in a courier packet having the sender's address in Malviya Nagar area.
A raid was conducted at the address and two persons namely Sahil and Wasim were apprehended from a warehouse. On checking the warehouse, 533 more illegal button actuated knives were recovered.
Accordingly, the police registered a case under section 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act at C.R. Park police station and both accused were arrested.
Accused Sahil disclosed that he registered himself on online shopping apps to sell these knives othrough his company, named My Style.
He disclosed that Yusuf was working for him and used to transport the knives from Sadar Bazar to Malviya Nagar. Yusuf was also arrested and revealed that he used to purchase the above illegal knives from Chawla, who was also then arrested and 13,440 more illegal button-actuated knives were recovered from his warehouse at Sadar Bazar.
Chawla disclosed that he used to place orders in China with a particular vendor for the knives. The payment used to be made by Mayank Babbar alias Mickey, owner of K2M Importer & Exporters, whose office is in China, from where the items were sent to India in containers.
The DCP said with the arrests and recovery of the knives, the Delhi Police have busted a nefarious Indo-Chinese module which has been bulk importing prohibited button actuated knives from China for sale in India. "The investigation now onwards will focus on the lapses, if any, on the part of regulatory and facilitating authorities like customs, DGFT and on the abettors of the crime which include leading online markets where the product has been listed for sale by the arrested accused," she said.
The police official also that they are now looking at the possibility of involvement of Chinese state actors who might be in collusion with the arrested Indians into pushing the contraband and to find out what else has been pushed into India under camouflaged names and titles.
According to sources, Singh, a resident of Faridkot, was the person who had launched the attack on Monday. A rocket-propelled grenade or RPG was fired from the street that shattered the window panes of Punjab Police's intelligence headquarters in Mohali.
Lt Gen Aujla, an alumnus of the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, was commissioned in December 1987 and has had an illustrious military career spanning 35 years during which he has held varied prestigious command, staff and instructional appointments.
The area around the Intelligence Bureau office has been sealed and investigation is in progress. A bomb disposal and forensic squads have been positioned at the spot. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann spoke to Director General of Police V.K. Bhawra and sought details about the incident.
Notably, the police detained several people, including party workers, who were not allowing the SDMC to carry out the demolition drive at Shaheen Bagh. After the agitation was quelled, the bulldozer moved forward to demolish the illegal encroachment, an iron structure in front of a building. It is at this juncture that Khan reached the spot and was seen speaking to the officials.
Punjab shares a 553-km barbed-wire fenced international border with Pakistan which is under the vigil of nearly 135 BSF battalions. The drug network operates along the Afghanistan-Pakistan-India route.
Police are looking at this angle. The incident took place near Kengeri at 1 a.m. and the injured were shifted to nearby hospitals. According to the police, the bus had first hit the 4-feet tall road divider and then rammed into the Namma Metro Pillar number 545.
