Possession of a fire arms or ammunition without a valid license is an offence under the Arms Act and Uttar Pradesh has emerged as the biggest offender.
The details of all such seizure cases and the amount of arms seized under the Arms Act is compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in their annual ‘Crime in India’ report wherein Uttar Pradesh accounted for nearly half of the country’s illegal weapons seizures.
UP, MP Account for 60% of the Seizures
It is not the left wing extremism or Maoist-affected states that top the list of seizures. Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh together account for more than 60% of all the seizures in the country both in 2014 and 2015. Add Rajasthan to this list, the percentage goes over 70%. More than 24,000 fire arms were seized in Uttar Pradesh in both 2014 and 2015.
Compared to this, the number of fire arms seized in all the South Indian states put together was less than 1,000 in both 2014 and 2015. More than 1,000 fire arms were seized in eight different states in 2014 and seven different states in 2015.
More Than 50,000 Fire Arms Seized in the Country in 2014 & 2015
As per the NCRB report, more than 53,000 fire arms were seized under the Arms Act in 2015, while more than 51,000 cases of seizure were reported.
In 2014, more than 55,000 cases under this act were registered and a similar number of fire arms were also seized. Both in 2014 & 2015, crude and country-made arms accounted for the bulk of the seizures. Licenced or factory-made fire arms were the lowest in terms of the seizures.
Seized arms include AK47/56, pistols, carbine, revolvers, guns, rifles and country-made weapons etc. More than one lakh number of ammunition were seized in 2014, while this number went up to more than three lakh in 2015.
Police also make seizures under the Explosives Act. In 2014, 3,843 cases of seizure of explosives were reported. This number increased marginally to 3,571 in 2015. The seized explosives include detonators, RDX, TNT, gelatin sticks, grenades, landmines, IEDs etc.
(Sourced from Factly)
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