Bengaluru: Cops knew about rowdies with arms?

Bengaluru: The police cannot claim to have been caught napping by a gangster running amok with a firearm in the city earlier this week.  It already had information about city rowdies being in possession of firearms before gangster Shabbir assaulted many of his rivals before shooting one of them, Parvez, dead  in Shivajinagar early Tuesday, according to sources. Despite the tip-off on the armed rowdies, the police did not act to keep the city safe from such violence on its streets, they regret.

Investigating officers have learnt that Shabbir had received his firearm from another gangster, Idreez who  gave it to him before his death two years ago.

After the shootout, the police finally acted and raided  houses of gangsters in Adugodi, Wilson Garden, Mico Layout, and KG Halli on Friday,  but found no weapons other than a few daggers. Its believed the firearms were stashed away at safe hideouts after Tuesday's violence.

How rowdies procure firearms or Khattas
According to a senior police officer, rowdies source weapons from construction labourers, who arrive in the city from north India, especially from UP, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, where firearm manufacturing is a cottage industry. “Firearms are easily available at prices ranging from anywhere between Rs 3,000 and 10,000 depending upon their capacity and durability. They are usually  smuggled in unreserved bogies of trains and dumped at a specific location en route,” explains the officer.

Most of the rowdies and contract killers reportedly prefer Khatta to branded and genuine firearms as they are cheaper to buy and easier to handle  and dispose  of.

In fact, the country- made firearms are usually destroyed by the gangsters after a few rounds of firing to  avoid the weapons being traced to them using the ammunitions recovered from the victim’s body, explains a senior police officer.

In the case of Shabbir though, he was caught with the firearm he had used to kill Parvez. “The gun  he had used  was still hot when we nabbed him after shooting him in his leg,” reveals the officer, however adding  that the rowdies arrested so far are only the henchmen of bigger gangsters like Jamshed and Sameer ,who have gone underground.