Arms Act cases down 16%, recovery of weapons up

NEW DELHI: The number of cases registered under the Arms Act in the first six months this year has shown a decline of 16.7% in comparison to the corresponding period in 2022. However, there was an increase of 11.6% in the recovery of firearms.
The Delhi Police data shows that 2,227 cases were registered till June last year, whereas this year, 1,853 cases were registered in the first six months.The data also shows a decline of 15.9% in arrests, as 2,118 were nabbed this year and 2,519 were caught the previous year. While 873 firearms were recovered this year, 782 were seized in 2022.

The cases of use of firearms also decreased this year. Criminals used firearms in 248 cases, whereas the number of such cases last year was 288. Police attributed the decline in the use of firearms to heightened security in the city.
An officer said they had launched a crackdown on illegal arms supplies in the city. “In the years 2020 and 2021, Covid affected everything, including gun trafficking. Things started becoming normal in the later part of 2021. The gun trafficking business, which was impacted in two years, rose in 2022 due to which the number of cases as well as detections increased,” the officer explained.
The officer added that to dodge police, traffickers were using social media applications. “Earlier, they used to make normal calls through which we were able to track them down. But now, they are communicating with consumers or dealers through internet calls to maintain a high level of secrecy.”
The dealers also do not keep phones with them while they go to collect weapons from other states or countries with porous borders. “They travel by night and return the next day. To avoid getting caught, they do not stay there,” the officer said.
Police said that in the last two years, they found that the gangsters preferred foreign-made pistols that were trafficked through two neighbouring countries. “The local criminals are using pistols that are made in different states. There are also instances where we have found that the weapon parts were trafficked from other countries or states and were assembled by dealers before selling them further,” the officer added.
In several cases, cops arrested one or two persons but recovered a good cache of weapons from them. “The crackdown against the illegal weapons supply also resulted in the increase in recovery,” police said.