Punjab DGP orders quarterly inspection of gun houses
Darpan News Desk IANS, 18 Nov, 2022 01:57 PM
Chandigarh, Nov 18 (IANS) Close on the heels of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann directing review of all arms licenses to check the gun culture, Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav on Friday ordered a mandatory statewide inspection of shops, premises, and stocks of all gun houses on a quarterly basis.
The DGP issued directions to all police ranges, authorising gazetted officers of the police to inspect the shops, premises, and stocks of all licensed manufactures and dealers under the Arms Act.
Apart from this, the District Superintendent of Police is required to conduct at least one inspection each year, he added.
Punjab has only two per cent of India's population, while it has nearly 10 per cent of the total licensed weapons which stand at nearly 4 lakh, or 13 gun licenses for every 1,000 persons in the state.
There is a huge influx of illegal weapons from across the international border and the inter-state borders from states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.
Although the weapons are illegally procured by anti-social elements, the ammunition is mostly pilfered from local gun houses of Punjab.
The DGP said there is an urgent need to enforce the basic policing practice of inspection of gun houses by gazetted police officers for which they are empowered as per the rules, so as to keep a check on the stocks and plug the pilferage of ammunition and misuse of licensed arms.
Earlier, apart from directing a review of all the existing arm licenses in the state, Chief Minister Mann had also ordered that if any licence had been issued to an anti-social element, in the past, then it must be cancelled immediately.
Similarly, it had also been ordered that no new licence should be issued generally in the next three months, adding a licence should be issued only where it is utmost and genuinely required.
The state government had also imposed a blanket ban on the public display of arms and ammunition, including on social media platforms.
Aftab Ameen Poonawalla had strangled 26 year-old Shradha on May 18. As per sources, he then chopped her body into 35 pieces and bought a new fridge to store them and threw them at various locations in a period of 18 days. To avoid any suspicion, he used to leave the house with a body part in a polybag at 2 a.m.
After two decades of being married, Wave Group chairman Manpreet Singh Chadha has announced a formal separation from his wife Sanamdeep Chadha. The couple, who share four children together, have issued a joint statement in this regard.
AAP chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang said the government's decision will hamper criminals to access the weapons in the state, which will ultimately end gun culture.
Officials said 10 bodies were recovered from the upper floor of a building destroyed in the fire, which originated from a ground-floor vehicle repair garage, local media reported.
Dera Sacha Sauda follower and an accused in the Guru Granth Sahib 'bir' theft and sacrilege, Pradeep Singh, was shot dead by five unidentified men on two motorcycles in Punjab's Kotkapura town when he was going to open his shop.
During the meeting, the police officers briefed the Chief Minister about the incident. Dera Sacha Sauda follower, Pradeep Singh, was shot dead by five unidentified men in Punjab's Kotkapura town on Thursday.
