Babbar Khalsa man buried arms in farm

Nishant Singh Karam Singh, 26, the alleged member of terror outfit Babbar Khalsa International who was arrested in Chembur on Saturday, had kept imported arms buried in his farm in Punjab, an officer of the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) from Maharashtra said.

Following Singh’s arrest, an ATS team had visited his village, Daleke, in Taran Taaran district of Punjab. The team recovered a huge cache of imported arms hidden in the farms by Singh. The weapons were sent from Pakistan.

Singh was arrested with 12 bore shotguns, 24 live rounds, two .32 pistols, two magazines and 17 live rounds.

Rakesh Maria, additional DGP, ATS, said the counter intelligence
team of the Punjab police had recently met the ATS officials and had shared information on Singh. Based on that, the ATS team had left for Punjab on Monday.

An ATS official said, “Investigations revealed that Singh’s family owns 13 acres of agricultural land and a house in Daleke. On digging the farms, we recovered an AK-47 rifle with 110 live rounds, one .32 Chinese made pistol, one 9mm Belgium made pistol with eight rounds, one .32 French made pistol and one .32 Kanpur ordnance factory made pistol with 10 live rounds were seized.”

The official added that Daleke is about 30 km away from Indo-Pak border and the weapons were sent from Pakistan. “Singh has also said that in past 18 months, he had made dealings of 150 kg of heroine through his drug syndicate. We are investigating whether he had any drug network in Mumbai,” the official said.

Singh’s family members also have criminal records, said Pradeep Sawant, deputy commissioner of police, ATS.

“Singh’s father Karam and uncle Gurbaksh were caught in 1991 with 1kg of heroine by the Punjab police. They were sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment in Amritsar Jail. They came out in 2001 and were again caught in 2007 with 2kg of heroine and were again sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment,” Sawant said.