The kingpin of the syndicate has been identified as Jai Sharma, alias Sukha Pistol Ambarsarya, a resident of Prem Nagar in Amritsar, while, four members have been identified as Nikhil Sharma, alias Lala of Sandhu Colony in Amritsar, Moni of Kot Khalsa in Amritsar, Arpit Thakur and Karan Sharma, both residents of Naina Devi in Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh.

Sukha Pistol has a criminal history with seven cases pertaining to the Arms Act, snatching and theft registered against him.

Police teams recovered two .32-bore pistols along with three magazines and eight cartridges from them.

Yadav said following reliable inputs that accused Sukha Pistol along with his accomplices had gone to Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh to procure illicit weapons, teams from the Civil Lines police station in Amritsar started keeping a vigil on their movements. On their return from Madhya Pradesh, the police teams pinpointed their location in Kharar, he said.

“Acting swiftly, police teams under the supervision of ADCP City-2 Abhimanyu Rana conducted a raid at a flat and arrested all accused. They recovered two pistols along with ammunition,” the DGP said.

Preliminary investigation revealed that the accused were planning to attack members of a rival gang.

They were booked under the Section 111 (organised crime) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 25(7) of the Arms Act.

Commissioner of police (CP), Amritsar, Ranjit Singh Dhillon said that this syndicate was engaged in criminal activities, including theft, snatching and arms trafficking.

Investigation is on to trace the forward and backward linkages of the module and also to identify the Madhya Pradesh-based arm smugglers. More arrests and recoveries are expected.