The Munger Police on Friday made a significant breakthrough, as they recovered two AK-47 assault rifles hidden under a cemetery boundary wall. With the recovery of these two rifles, the police have so far found 14 AK-47s in Munger’s Mirzapur Bardhe village alone.

The police also found ammunition hidden along with the guns. Earlier in October 2018, Munger police had 12 AK 47 rifles packed in a sack and hidden in a well from the same village.

Munger police have also arrested Parvez Chand from Mirzapur village in the aftermath of the latest recovery of the assault rifles. The cops have alleged that Parvez, a politician associated with Rashtriya Janata Dal(RJD), was responsible for hiding the firearms under the cemetery boundary wall.

The state police have shared details about the latest recovery of AK 47 rifles and subsequent arrest of a politician with the National Investigation Agency(NIA), which is currently probing the AK-47 smuggling case.

"The recovered weapons will be tested for the verification process to ascertain whether they belonged to the ordnance depot at Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh or have been developed locally," said a police officer in Munger.

In September 2018, Munger Police had arrested Purushottam Lal Das, a retired armourer of the Central Ordnance Depot at Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh, for transporting AK-47 assault rifles and spare parts to criminals in Munger.

The police had also recovered video footage of Purushottam, his wife and son travelling to Munger with the consignment of dismantled AK-47 assault rifles for gunrunners in Bihar’s Munger district. He later confessed to having sold 70 assault rifles to arms suppliers in Munger district from 2012 to 2018.

Subsequent police investigation indicated that the sophisticated weapons were dismantled and transported from Jabalpur. Some of these guns were old, decommissioned rifles that had once been used by the armed forces and were given a makeover at Jabalpur. Some of the recovered guns were sent for repairs but some unscrupulous Jabalpur technicians declared them irreparable and shipped them out to gunrunners through Purushottam. After Purshottam’s arrest, the Madhya Pradesh police had also arrested two other accused Shivendra Lal and Suresh Thakur.

Mohammad Riyazur Rehman, a retired army jawan, is believed to be the kingpin of the racket. Riyazur, who was arrested from Bengal’s New Jalpaiguri on September 9 last year, is said to have convinced Purushottam Lal Rajak, armourer at the Jabalpur depot to join him. Thakur, in turn, took storekeeper Suresh Thakur into confidence to get shipped out the sophisticated weapons from the depot. Riyazur and Rajak were earlier posted in Lucknow.

Since then the Munger police have also arrested local arms smugglers Imran and Shamsher. They have also disclosed names of some former lawmakers and bahubalis (musclemen) who had purchased AK-47s from them. Now the NIA has taken up the case.

These two criminals along with their associate Manjar Alam have been found to have smuggled the AK-47s to criminal gangs and Maoists operating in Gaya and Aurangabad in Bihar and Hazaribagh in Jharkhand. Manjar had strong connections with arms suppliers in Bihar and Jharkhand.

The police have also found that "Made in Munger" AK-47 assault rifles are the most sought-after weapon for contract killers operating in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand.

The AK-47 weapon was used in the daylight murder of Dina Gope, an influential RJD leader and husband of a ward councillor, in the Gardanibagh police station area in Patna in May 2018. The sophisticated weapon was also used in the killing of an engineer of a private power holding corporation in Sheohar and two engineers of a private road construction company in Darbhanga district.

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