Police arrested two youths with three country-made revolvers and 15 rounds of live ammunition when they were allegedly trying to flee an “anti-crime” naka checking on the Ranaghat-Dhantala road in Nadia around 2am on Saturday.
A team of Dhantala police station chased Baban Das, 26, and Dhananjoy Sarkar, 29, who were riding a scooter, for a few kilometres and finally nabbed them with the arms and ammunition.
Police sources said Baban was a resident of Belgharia in North 24-Parganas, while Dhananjoy was from Panchberia of Nadia, and both are part of a suspected arms supply chain. They were allegedly headed to hand over the consignment to a racket member near the Bangladesh border.
The sleuths suspect that the arms were being gathered by musclemen with proximity to political parties to intimidate rivals ahead of panchayat polls.
The duo were produced before the additional chief judicial magistrate’s court in Ranaghat, which ordered five days in police custody.
Speaking to the media in Santipur, Ranaghat police district K. Kannan SP said: “Two youths riding a scooter (Yamaha ZR) suspiciously tried to flee the naka point when on duty policemen asked them to stop for checking near Nimtala More.... They sped away fast riding the two-wheeler prompting our officers to chase them.... The duo were caught... during frisking we found three improvised firearms and 15 rounds of live ammunition from their possession.”
“We are trying to know how they managed to get the arms... and about the persons involved behind the suspected supply chain...,” SP Kannan said.
Rape-accused held
Toton Biswas, 24, of Gangnapur in Nadia, was arrested by a Ranaghat police team from Gujarat on Friday night, allegedly for raping a 14-year-old girl two years ago. The accused was produced before a court in Gujarat and taken to transit remand to bring him back to Ranaghat. Police said he fled to Gujarat in 2021 after the alleged crime. The girl’s family continued to pursue the police to arrest Toton. Recently, the police traced his mobile location in Gujarat.
