Seven Held as Fake Arms Licence Busted in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: The Commissioner’s task force busted a fake arms licence racket by arresting seven persons, including a mastermind belonging to Jammu and Kashmir, the police said here on Thursday. The accused were allegedly procuring real arms by producing fake licenses. 

In a press release, the Hyderabad city commissioner of police CV Anand said, the perpetrators were found to be using bogus seals of licence-issuing officials and used forged signatures to get real weapons. 

Based on the credible information, the West Zone task force arrested the gang and filed cases of alleged cheating, forgery, making counterfeit seals, criminal conspiracy and illegal possession of arms against the accused, the police said. 

The task force has seized 30 single-bore weapons, three double-bore weapons, one revolver, 140 rounds of ammunition, 34 fake weapon licence documents, 29 unused weapons licence books, nine licences which were affixed with fake stamp, six rubber stamps and one unsigned NOC. 

The mastermind of the racket has been identified as Altaf Hussain who has been staying in Hyderabad since 2013. First he joined a private security firm and later, he got a gunman job for a company handling cash. Prior to his employment, Altaf bought a double-bore gun Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir. He had procured the weapon using a fake licence and by bribing the local magistrate office, the police said.

Later, he started working with a stamp vendor in Secunderabad and began issuing fake licences (to get arms), the police said. Altaf involved several unemployed youth from different states who were working as security guards in private security firms. He also procured weapons from other States through the youth by paying anywhere between Rs 40,000 to Rs 60,000, the police added. 

This infringement has taken place with the connivance of the Regional Manager at Grace Management Security Services Venkata Konda Reddy, and the xerox shop owner in West Marredpally, Srinivas. The accused used to collect Rs 20,000 from each unemployed youngster and later deployed them in various private security agencies, a serious lapse in the functioning of security firms, the police said.
The power of issuing arms licences and renewals is vested with police. This (issuing fake arms licences) is illegal and a serious threat to public safety. The private security firms must adhere to the Private Security Agency Regulation Act (PSARA) under which the operation of private security agencies is governed. 

“A private security agency cannot hire a guard with a firearms licence and they should also submit an undertaking to this effect. If banks, ATMs, and business establishments want armed guards, they can apply for arms licence and then hire the guards as retainers from the security services,” the police said. 

Seven men have been arrested by Commissioner’s task force team for allegedly running a fake arms license racket. The perpetrators used fake seals of license issuing officials & forged the signatures to prepare the fake arms licenses and procured real...https://t.co/gANax9pqOh pic.twitter.com/8xwHsG6iW0

— Hyderabad City Police (@hydcitypolice) November 17, 2022

Hyderabad police commissioner CV Anand further said a meeting with all private security agencies would be held to urge them to voluntarily disclose the weapons in their possession. The city police was also contemplating on issuing retainer licences to private security firms, he added.

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(With PTI inputs)