Six men, including five security guards, have been arrested from Bardhaman and North 24-Parganas districts for allegedly running a racket that provided fake and forged documents for preparing fake arms licences for security guards.
This means many of the guards who become eligible to use firearms because they possess ‘arms licences’ and are posted in important locations may not be fit enough to carry arms at all, a CID officer said.
“The accused, who had procured arms on the basis of fake arms licences, were engaged by various security agencies as guards in and around Kolkata,” said deputy inspector-general of police (operations), CID, Meeraj Khalid.
Lakhs of people across the state work as security guards and are hired by private agencies, but only a few get a chance to carry firearms.
Guards with firearms are generally deployed in banks, private offices, jewellery showrooms, agencies engaged for carrying ATM cash and as personal security guards.
An arms licence is issued in the name of an individual after clearances from the police and the district administration. Guards with an arms licence are much sought after.
A police investigation now suggests that the racketeers used fake seals of various officials of the Bengal government and of other states to prepare forged identity documents and produce fake arms licences.
The police said 36 fake seals belonging to different government officials have been seized.
“What is alarming is that these fake documents have been used to procure real arms,” said an officer of the special operations group of the state CID.
According to Satnam Singh Ahluwalia, the secretary general of the Central Association of Private Security (CAPSI) in Bengal, the lure of a better salary often prompts guards to get an arms licence. “The salary of a guard with an arms licence is at least 50 per cent more than that of a guard without it. It is unfortunate if someone uses fake documents to get an arms licence,” Ahluwalia said.
Security guards who have an arms license can carry small firearms like a revolver or barrelled guns depending on the specification of the licence. The territory of use of the weapon also depends on whether the licence is valid only within the state or the entire country.
When a private security agency hires a guard with a firearms licence, it is the duty of the agency to verify his or her credentials.
“There is a standard operating procedure while recruiting a guard. We send all the applications (on prospective security guards) to the police for verification,” said the owner of a private security agency in south Kolkata.
Officers in charge of at least six police stations in south and central Kolkata said the number of applications for background checks of prospective guards is “very few.”
The police identified Safik Molla from East Burdwan as the mastermind of the racket.
The other arrested persons include Zulfiquar Sheikh, Shabir Molla, Imanul Mondal, Hafizul Sheikh from Bardhaman and Biman Mondal from Haroa in North 24-Parganas.
The accused have been booked under charges of cheating, forgery, making counterfeit seals, criminal conspiracy and illegal possession of arms.