Police interrogating three arrested arms smugglers involved in inter-state smuggling

After arrest of three inter-state arms smugglers including an arms supplier of Bihar state, senior police and intelligence officials on Tuesday continue to interrogate the three arms smugglers, who were arrested by the Tripura police after seizing two small firearms and four magazines in Agartala.

Speaking with media persons, SP (West Tripura district) Namit Pathak  said that the three arrested arms smugglers, involved in an inter-state arms trade, were produced before a local court on Tuesday, which remanded them to five days of police custody.

 After their arrest senior police and intelligence officials will continue to question the three arrested persons to know the details about the arms smuggling and their planning, said police,  adding that it was suspected that the arms were intended to be smuggled to Bangladesh.

The Tripura Police arrested three persons, including an alleged arms supplier from Bihar, after seizing two small firearms and four magazines during a routine patrolling at  Bypass road by Arundhuti Nagar police station on the outskirts of Agartala on Monday night.

Pathak had said that the arrests were made when the Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Arundhuti Nagar Police station, Sushanta Deb was conducting routine patrolling near the Bandeshwar bridge areas on the Bypass road.

The OC noticed suspicious movement by three persons and, upon checking, recovered the weapons along with three mobile phones.

The arrested persons have been identified as Tinku Debbarma (35) and Sumenda Debbarma (40), both residents of Barkathal in West Tripura district and Subash Kumar (29), a resident of Dumeria Khurd in Bihar state, who allegedly brought the firearms into the state.

The district police chief said that a case is being registered under the Arms Act, and preliminary investigation indicates that the seized weapons were brought from Bihar earlier in the day as part of their arms smuggling network.

“Only after further interrogation can we confirm how the arms reached here, for what purpose and to whom they were to be delivered,” Pathak said.

Police sources also noted that the Arundhuti Nagar area, located close to Agartala railway station, has witnessed multiple arrests of arms dealers over the past few years, with most cases involving illegal firearms smuggled into the state, often via train routes, particularly from Nagaland.

Meanwhile, on May 8, eight pistols and 16 empty magazines were recovered from an express train at Agartala railway station.

The Government Railway Police (GRP) and Railway Protection Force (RPF), in a joint operation on May 8, recovered eight pistols and 16 empty magazines from the Tripura Sundari Express Train after the train reached the Agartala railway station from Punjab's Firozpur.

"Eight pistols and 16 empty magazines were recovered from the two unclaimed bags,” a GRP official had said, adding that there is no mark or place of manufacture of the pistols and magazines. All eight pistols are similar to point 9mm pistols.