AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) has busted an illegal arms racket and arrested 24 persons besides seizing 54 country-made guns from parts of the state, mostly the Saurashtra region, a senior official said on Thursday.
The arrests were made in the last two days, he said.
Preliminary probe has revealed that two main accused - Devendra Boriya and Champraj Khachar - had sold nearly 100 country-made pistols in different parts of Saurashtra, including in Surendranagar and Rajkot, in the last two years.
Based on a tip-off, an ATS team nabbed Boria and Khachar, both residents of Surendrangar, from Geeta Mandir area of the Ahmedabad city on May 3, said ATS Deputy Superintendent of Police Harsh Upadhyay.
"We recovered four country-made pistols from their possession. The duo admitted that they had purchased the guns from Madhya Pradesh and were going to deliver the guns to a Vadodara-based person. They admitted to have sold nearly 100 such pistols in the Saurashtra region in the last two years," he added.
Although they used to pay around Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000 for each pistol, they would charge Rs 40,000 to Rs 1 lakh each from their customers, Upadhyay said.
After getting the details of their customers, the ATS teams nabbed 22 such persons from different parts of the state in 24 hours and recovered 50 pistols from their possession.
In all, ATS has so far seized 54 illegal guns and arrested 24 persons.
Further investigation into this illegal arms network is on, the official said.