Arms haul: Cops silent on links of accused

Lucknow: In the arms haul case busted on Wednesday, though men in khaki acted fast to expose the main accused, the SSP’s special squad even after 36 hours remained tight-lipped about the links of Jopling Road resident Syed Tariq Haq. Names of several persons have cropped up during probes but police were not divulging details to safeguard progress of the investigations.
Hinting at high profile links of the accused, cops are likely to book son of politician under Arms Act in the coming days.Two of the firearms recovered from Haq’s house belonged to the same MP’s son whose motorcycle was seized from the premises.
Several senior politicians, contractors, businessmen and others bigwigs are under police scanner now. The city police claimed to have recovered 25 sophisticated firearms from Haq’s residence located in the plush Nanpara house area of Hazratganj on Wednesday.
Men in uniform are aware of ownership of firearms and motorcycle recovered from Haq’s house. “Investigations are on and those who left their firearms in violation of rules will be booked under Section 30 of Arms Act,” said SSP Yashasvi Yadav.
Meanwhile, investigating officer of the case is expected to question Haq on Friday. “We have secured his custody for a day and will try to explore Haq’s connections,” added Yadav. Cops had recovered animal skins, bulletproof vests, foreign made swords besides sophisticated firearms that included sniper rifles, automatic guns among other items during the raid.
Haq used to order sophisticated parts of firearms online from abroad and used them to convert ordinary firearms such as air guns into formidable weapons. Haq also used to indentify himself as ‘national secretary’ of ‘National Human Rights Seva Sangh’. His neighbours had no idea of his occupation.
Haq’s house is located at a walking distance from Sultanganj police outpost but he managed to operate without any fear; action had not been initiated against any policemen.
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Intel swings into action: Central as well as state intelligence agencies have been pulled up for being oblivious of Haq’s activities. On Wednesday, SSP said Haq had been operating for past around two years and each of firearms seized from him was worth over Rs 5 lakh.
Report awaited: Younger brother of the accused, Natiq said, “We all are waiting for report of ballistic experts. Most of the arms are used for hunting wild animals.”