Sleuths of the Special Task Force (STF) claimed to have busted an arms supply syndicate following the arrest of former Samajwadi Party MlA from Charra (Aligarh) Rakesh Singh. A foreign-made pistol was recovered from his possession on Monday night.

DGP OP Singh said that on Monday evening, the STF got inputs about an organised gang working in western UP and involved in supply of arms and ammunition.

Singh said that an STF team from west UP unit was asked to develop the input. After close monitoring, the team got some more inputs after which the STF team raided a flat in Royal Gayatri Apartment in Qwarsi (Aligarh) owned by Rakesh Singh late in the night. 

The DGP said that during search, a 9mm Taurus pistol (made in Brazil) was recovered from Singh’s possession and he was taken to police station. During interrogation, the accused revealed that he was a former SP MlA from Charra (Aligarh) and that he purchased the weapon from Nagendra Pratap Singh aka Thakur of Aligarh for Rs 4.5 lakh. 

Singh revealed said that Thakur ran the gang with the help of his conduit Ishan Chaaudhary aka Ufaq and supplied many arms and ammunitions to customers western UP. The ex-MlA was booked under Arms Act and sent to jail on Wednesday. 

Meanwhile, on the information extracted through the interrogation of Rakesh Singh, the STF team conducted further raids and arrested five members of the arms supply gang from lucknow. Singh said that the STF team raided some hideouts in Malhaur area in lucknow and arrested Nagendra Pratap Singh and Ishan Chawdhary along with Mohamed Anees aka Shibli, Subur Anwar, and Waseem Ahmed,  and recovered  weapons and cartridges along with mobile phones and cash.  They were taken into custody and further interrogations were on. The DGP also announced a cash reward of Rs 50,000 for the STF team.