U.P.: SP MLA’s brother-in-law held for procuring two firearms on forged licences
Police recovered a factory-made rifle and a pistol along with a forged arms licence booklet from the possession of Sandeep Singh alias Pappu Singh
Uttar Pradesh (UP) Special Task Force (STF) arrested the brother-in-law of Samajwadi Party MLA from Ayodhya’s Goshainganj assembly seat Abhay Singh from his house in a residential apartment under Vibhuti Khand police station for procuring illegal weapons on the basis of forged arms licence issued from Nagaland, said STF officials here on Saturday.
They said the police team had recovered a factory-made rifle and a pistol along with a forged arms licence booklet from the possession of Sandeep Singh alias Pappu Singh.
A senior STF official confirmed that Sandeep Singh is the brother of the SP MLA’s wife. He was operating several construction firms and two sweets shops in Lucknow’s Aliganj and Gomti Nagar extension areas, the official said. In a press note issued by the STF, the officials said Sandeep has around nine criminal cases against him.
“During inquiry, the Nagaland authorities report confirmed that they had not issued any firearms licence to Sandeep Singh and there were no documents related to licence transfer from Nagaland to U.P. He had presented the forged licence before the Ayodhya district magistrate concealing his criminal background,” a senior STF official said.
The official said it was also found during the inquiry that Sandeep Singh never visited Nagaland and he had deposited his both licences of rifle and pistol at Nanda Gun House on Latouche Road in Lucknow during the civic polls.
He said the police came to know about it while checking credentials of firearms licence holders in the city. He said an FIR under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 419 (cheating by impersonation), 420 (fraud), 467 (forging of documents), 468 (using forged documents for cheating purpose) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and under different sections of the Arms Act was lodged against Sandeep Singh at Vibhuti Khand police station.