DC office staffer among two booked

Our Correspondent

Tarn Taran, November 24

The police have booked two persons for allegedly preparing fake arms licences.

The accused have been identified as Karwinder Singh Cheema, and Manjinder Mani, who is an arms dealer and a resident of Pandori Gola village.

Ironically, Cheema has been posted at the Arms Branch of the Deputy Commissioner’s Office.

A case under the Arms Act has been registered against the duo for preparing around 200 fake arms licences on the basis of forged documents in the last couple of years. The police officials said more heads were likely to roll.

The police claimed Cheema and Mani used to take Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000 for making an illegal arms licence.

Cheema was booked by the police under the similar offence around six years ago as well. The then Deputy Commissioner Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal had marked a probe to the then Additional Deputy Commissioner Bakhtawar Singh, who had found gross irregularities in functioning of the Arms Branch.

It was found that a fake arms licence was issued to Jaspal Singh of Bhikhiwind for Rs 30,000. After the issue was highlighted, a ‘fire’ incident was reported in the Arms Branch in which official records got burnt and an inquiry was marked to find the reason behind the fire.