Inter-state arms racket busted, 7 held, manhunt on

Kolkata: Seven members of an inter-state arms smuggling gang were arrested from a house near Harishchandrapur in Malda during a joint raid by the police and Criminal Investigation Department’s (CID) special operation group on Sunday. Initial investigation has revealed that the gang had supplied arms to Maoists during the Nandigram violence in 2007.
All the accused were produced before the Alipore Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court and were remanded in police custody for a week, a senior CID officer said.
The arms smugglers had come to Malda on a tour and were staying at the house for the last couple of days, said Satyajit Banerjee, Superintendent of Police, Malda.
A CID officer said several complaints of extortion, murder, attempt to murder and arms smuggling were lodged against the kingpin of the racket, Ashok Mondal, in North and South 24 Parganas. Earlier, he was arrested in Tamluk but was later released on bail, the officer added.
The gang reportedly used to smuggle sophisticated arms from Belgium and had been selling them to organised crime syndicates in Bengal and also in the neighbouring states of Bihar and Jharkhand.