TMC panchayat member among two held in Bengal for illegal sale of firearms

A Trinamool Congress (TMC) gram panchayat member was arrested in Bengal’s Malda district on Saturday night on charges of selling illegal firearms while a resident of Jharkhand was nabbed in Kolkata around the same time with a cache of arms and ammunition, police said.
“Abdul Rashid, a gram panchayat member from the Farakka area was arrested for his suspected involvement in illegal gun sale. A criminal named Muhammad Tausif was arrested on October 27 with some firearms that he tried to smuggle into Bangladesh. Tausif’s interrogation led to Rashid’s arrest,” a Malda district police officer said on condition of anonymity.
While being taken to court on Sunday, Rashid told the media that he worked for the ruling party. “I joined TMC one year ago. Police have caught me in an Arms Act case,” he said.
Local TMC leaders did not comment on the arrest.
In Kolkata, the special task force (STF) of the city police arrested a man identified as Md Ismail Khan, a Jharkhand resident, with two .32 bore improvised semi-automatic pistols, three .303 bore single-shot pistols and 90 rounds of live ammunition near Surendranath College on Saturday night.
“Khan, who hails from Jharkhand’s Chatra district, has been living in the Rajabazar area of Kolkata for two years. He brought the weapons from Munger in Bihar with intention to sell them to local traders,” a police official said.