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NEW DELHI: In what appears to be a serious security breach, an employee of an army ordnance depot in New Delhi was arrested for allegedly running a racket in which arms licences were procured by issuing fake recommendation certificates. The accused used to get arms licences issued from Jammu & Kashmir administration in civilians’ names by submitting fake verification letters.

The kingpin of the racket, Ranjit Singh (52), worked as a sweeper with the ordnance depot at Shakur Basti in New Delhi. Singh was earlier posted at Udhampur in J&K where he came to know that the J&K administration issues arms licence to army personnel on a verification letter issued by any army unit in the country.

Taking advantage of the lacuna in the system, Ranjit, in collusion with other officials of his unit in Delhi, used to prepare fake verification letters in the names of civilians that helped them get arms licence. And on the basis of these licences, the civilians obtained weapons from the ordnance depot.

The racket came to light after the special cell of Delhi Police received inputs that there were several people in Delhi who are in possession of gun licence issued from J&K. “A team led by ACP, L N Rao, carried out raids and nabbed Jasbir Singh and Mukesh Dahiya from whom three revolvers along with six arms licences were seized. The licences were issued by the district magistrate offices at Doda and Ramban in Jammu & Kashmir,” said additional DCP (special cell) Shibesh Singh.

Jasbir and Mukesh paid Rs 40,000 to Singh for the arms licence.

The two told police that they had obtained the licence from one Ranjit Singh, who works at an ordnance depot. Ranjit, too, was arrested.

All three were taken on police remand for seven days during which they were taken to J&K.

During the inquiry, it was found that the arms licences were issued on the basis of recommendation certificate issued by various army units which were later found to be fake. Further investigations revealed that hundreds of people residing in Delhi have obtained arms licence on the basis of fake recommendation letters.

During the probe, it was revealed that some of the licence holders are involved in criminal cases in Delhi. Such persons are not eligible for arms licences from Delhi Police licencing branch and hence they managed to illegally obtain the same from J&K and are in possession of arms and ammunition.

The police had learnt about three persons who never served in the army or any other security agencies but were in possession of such arms licence.

These licences were not endorsed by the Delhi Police licencing branch, a mandatory requirement for all arms owners in Delhi.

The special cell of Delhi Police have registered a case and are investigating the matter. The police said that role of more officials from the ordnance depot cannot be ruled out.

Meanwhile, the DM offices in J&K have issued a circular to verify all such recommendations before granting arms licences to army personnel.