Arms seized, 6,500 arrested in West Bengal in 2 weeks
By IANSTuesday, February 22, 2011
KOLKATA - West Bengal police have seized at least 235 illegal arms and a huge cache of ammunition during the first two weeks of February and arrested 6,500 people against whom non-bailable arrest warrants had earlier been issued, a poll official said Tuesday.
During the period between Feb 1 and Feb 15, a total of 235 illegal firearms have been recovered across the state and over 6,500 non-bailable warrants (NBW) have been executed while over 5,400 NBWs have been disposed of,” said state Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Gupta Tuesday.
The election commission has been assessing the law and order situation in the state regularly and asked the state government to take action to seize illegal arms and arrest the criminals against whom arrest warrants were pending.
A huge cache of ammunition, including 503 rounds of cartridges, 1,420 crude bombs and 105.4 kg of explosive powder, were recovered during the period.
Detonators, gelatine sticks and landmines were recovered from Burdwan and West Midnapore districts.
The state police have acted accordingly and executed the warrants pending against criminals, said Gupta.
He said the election commissions director general for expenditure monitoring P.K. Dash is likely to arrive here Wednesday.
“Dash will Thursday meet senior police officers, senior officials of income tax and excise departments and senior Border Security Force (BSF) personnel. He will give a briefing about monitoring the election related expenditure of the candidates,” said Gupta.
Dash will also hold talks with the senior officials and police officers of the districts through video conference.
The approximate expenditure budget for the assembly polls in the state was around Rs.220 crore. The budget for the 2006 assembly poll and 2009 Lok Sabha poll in the state was Rs.180 crore and Rs.190 crore, respectively, Gupta added.
