Tea Retailer Arrested in Kankarbagh; Arms Recovered
Patna: March 29, 2008
A Special Task Force (STF) in Patna on Saturday, following up on a tip, arrested the owner of a tea retailer in Kankarbagh and recovered military-style arms and ammunition including a highly-potent H-36 hand grenade, 6 pistols, and 10 live cartridges, IG Operations S. K. Bhardwaj said.
"We had received a tip about a week ago that arms transaction were taking place in the DG Tea Center under the Rajendra Nagar Bridge," said Bhardwaj.
A stakeout was organized to monitor activities in the tea center. On Saturday, the STF raided the store and recovered arms and ammunition while also arresting the owner of the shop Mohammed Ejazuddin.
A resident of Chiraiyantand, Ejazuddin denied any connection with arms dealers saying some customer left a bag at his shop by accident while his daughter was working at the store.
He also pointed fingers at his neighbor Hasan Imam with whom, he said; he was engaged in a legal dispute over some land.
The police though is having hard time buying his story.
"We had credible information about arms being bought and sold at the store in the guise of a tea shop. It would one heck of a coincidence that we raided the store the same day someone 'accidentally' left his bag at the shop," Kankarbagh police officials said.
The man is being grilled by the police to get to the bottom of the case and to find out if he has any connection with international arms dealers or terrorists, Kankarbagh police station in-charge Ramakant Prasad said.
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