A 34-year-old man was arrested for allegedly supplying a weapon to one of the accused in the infamous northeast Delhi riots over two years ago, police said on Friday.

The accused has been identified as Babu Wasim, a resident of Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, they said.

The police said they received a tip-off on Thursday that Wasim was to arrive in Tahirpur around 6 pm to meet one of his contacts. Accordingly, a trap was laid near Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital and he was nabbed, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Jasmeet Singh said.

A pistol and five live cartridges were recovered from him, the DCP said.

Wasim is an arms supplier and he has confessed to to have supplied weapons and ammunition to various gangsters and criminals in western Uttar Pradesh and Delhi-NCR for a decade, the officer said.

According to the DCP, Wasim has admitted with the police that he had supplied a pistol to Shahrukh Khan alias Pathan, who was found brandishing the loaded weapon at a policeman during the Delhi riots riots in Jafrabad area in 2020.

A video of Khan pointing the pistol towards a policeman had gone viral, following which Wasim had absconded.

According to the police, Wasim has revealed to them that he has supplied more than 250 firearms to criminals and arms traffickers in Delhi-NCR in the last two-and-half-a-years.

He was previously found involved in seven criminal cases, including contract killings, shootouts resulting in murder and attempt to murder in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, they said.

His role in supplying the firearms to other rioters in the Delhi incident is also being probed, police added.

Clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi on February 24, 2020, after violence between the Citizenship (Amendment) Act supporters and its protesters spiralled out of control, leaving at least 53 people dead and over 700 injured.