Anirudh Gupta
Ferozepur, November 30
Following stringent instructions issued by the state government regarding the misuse of firearms licences, the Ferozepur police have recommended the cancellation of 666 arms licences. These include persons against whom FIRs have been registered in various cases and whose weapons have been deposited in the “malkhana” or have been with an arms dealer for a long time.
SSP Kanwardeep Kaur said there were a total of 21,430 arms licence holders in the district and the licences of 7,258 had been scanned by the police so gar and 666 licences had been recommended for cancellation for various reasons.
Five FIRs have been registered for display of weapons on social media till now, besides another for hate speech. “We have recommended the cancellation of the arms licences in all these cases,” she said.
DC Amrit Singh said firearms licences of 21 persons sitting in front of the ethanol plant at Mansurwala village in Zira sub-division had been suspended, adding that in three cases, the licences had been cancelled.
She said as many 326 cases had been identified where weapons have been deposited in the “malkhana” or had been lying with a firearms dealer for long and notices had been served in these cases.
In December 2019, it had been reported in these columns that 21 proclaimed offenders (POs) involved in serious crimes had been found in possession of firearms licences. The then DC, Chander Gaind, had later cancelled these.