PATNA: Sleuths of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday carried out searches on multiple locations of arms smugglers in Bihar's Vaishali, Muzaffarpur and Saran districts.
The Bihar-based gangs have their links with those operating in Nagaland and other northeastern states.
The searches began early morning and concluded late in the evening.
Sources said that sleuths of the federal agency cordoned off the house of an influential Mukhiya (panchayat head) Nandkishore Rai under Kudhani police station limits in Muzaffarpur district and started a search operation.
Mukhiya's son Devmuni Rai had allegedly purchased an AK-47 rifle from an arms dealer who was a member of an inter-state gang involved in arms smuggling from Nagaland and other northeastern states.
The personnel of the district police cooperated with the raiding team. Sources said that some parts of the prohibited bore weapon were recovered from Rai's house during the search conducted in May this year.
Wednesday's search was a part of the ongoing investigation into the use of money earned through illegal arms smuggling in the real estate.
Muzaffarpur Deputy SP A C Gyani said, " NIA started conducting the raids at 5 am. Sleuths of the federal investigation agency searched the premises of Devmuni Rai in the Kudhni area in connection with its probe into the recovery of one butt and one scope of an illegally procured AK-47 rifle from his possession."
Gyani, however, expressed his inability to disclose the outcome of the search operation.
"We are not authorised to share any information. NIA people will give you details of the operation and its outcome," the Deputy SP said.
The name of Saytam of Hajipur in the Vaishali district had also come to light during the investigation.
On Wednesday, another team conducted searches at the residential premises of an advocate of the Patna high court on SDO road in Vaishali district. Sources said that the members of the raiding team were looking for documents related to the purchase of land with the money earned through illegal arms smuggling.
The operation continued for more than four hours. The advocate's father Ashok Kumar Sinha confirmed the searches conducted by a Delhi team of the federal agency. Sinha told the media that nothing objectionable was found during the search of the house.
"We cooperated with the raiding team," he added. Authoritative sources said that the Special Task Force (STF) of the Bihar police had recovered an AK-47 assault rifle smuggled from Nagaland from Devmuni Rai's house during a raid earlier this year.
Both Devmuni and his associate Satyam were arrested and sent to jail in Arms Act cases. During the probe, the NIA came to know that the seized AK-47 rifle was procured from Nagaland. The members of Bihar-based arms racket had purchased the deadly weapon from Ahmad Ansari, a native of Dimapur in Nagaland.
Vaishali SP Harkishor Rai said that confirmed the raids conducted by NIA teams at three locations, including SDO road and Bagmalli in Hajipur.
The third raid was conducted at Gauspur Chakmajahid village under Mahua police station in search of Munna Rai, stated to be the son of an advocate late Anil Rai.
The federal agency also conducted a raid on the residential premises of a ward councillor Aiyasha Khatoon under the Parsa police station area in Saran district.
The raiding team was looking for Mohammad Karmullah Ansari, son of Aiyasha, who is stated to be in contact with arms smugglers. Unconfirmed reports claimed that a weapon made in Bangladesh was recovered from Ansari's house.