Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Jan 31: Mumbai Crime Branch team has found the gun license of 21 private security guards of Poonch district of Jammu province, who were arrested for carrying illegal arms in Mumbai early this month, as genuine.
A 3-member Mumbai Crime Branch team headed by Inspector Nitin Patnaik that arrived in Poonch on Monday left back this morning after conducting the verification of 21 gun license that were seized from private security guards of Poonch in Mumbai early this month.
Twenty one security guards of Poonch district were arrested by Mumbai Crime Branch early this month for moving around with guns that were not registered with the local police.
Crime Branch had seized 21 rifles and 193 live cartridges from the men during raids by the agency’s property cell at three places in Rajeev Nagar slums, Bandra in Mumbai.
However, with the intervention of MLA Poonch, Aijaz Jan, who took up the matter with the Maharashtra government and Mumbai Police, the arrested security guards were released on bail.
Sources said that the Mumbai Crime Branch team verified the gun license from Deputy Commissioner’s office in Poonch and found that all the 21 gun license were genuine and issued by the Deputy Commissioner for their personal security. However, the private security members were making commercial use of these guns and had not registered the weapons with the Mumbai Police.
The Crime Branch team also visited Sawijan Badar and Khari villages of these 21 private security guards to check their antecedents of these people who are living near the Line of Control (LoC).
These 21 security guards were working for Mumbai based security firm, Modern VR Security Force, for the past six months. They were posted at banks, corporate offices, malls, ATMs and multiplexes; some also guarded cash transfer vans.
But the gun control laws require licence-holders moving to a different city to register their arms with that place’s police, district collector and weapons and ammunition department.
Sources said that Mumbai Police have asked the district administration and those who are lobbying for their return to Mumbai that these license should be commercial and only then they can be registered by the Mumbai police. But majority of the gun license of thousands of these private security guards working in Mumbai are for personal security.
There are 30, 000 private security guards and watchmen of Jammu and Kashmir working in Mumbai and some of them have been there for around 3 decades. Majority of them are from Poonch district, followed by Rajouri, Kupwara and Baramulla districts of the State.
After recent crackdown by Mumbai Crime Branch against these private security guards following their involvement in some criminal activity including murder of 25-year-old lawyer Pallavi Purkayastha in Wadala’s Himalayan Heights, Mumbai by a watchman from Uri in North Kashmir last year, 2500 private security men fled from Mumbai. Most of these belong to Poonch and Rajouri districts and back home they have used political pressure and have now been asked to return Mumbai without guns and join as watchmen. After registering their guns with the Mumbai police they can later carry their guns to Mumbai and work as watchmen.
MLA Poonch Aijaz Jan said that he has taken the issue of the Private Security Guards with the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s office and it is because of political intervention that a Mumbai Crime Branch team visited Poonch. He said that he will take the issue with the Chief Minister and seek the employment of these private security guards in the outside State branches of Jammu and Kashmir Bank.
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