New Delhi: Amritpal Singh’s two personal security officers who are retired from the Army had their arms licences either renewed or freshly issued from districts in Jammu and Kashmir has now brought to light a questionable delay in revoking arms licences granted to them, said the officials.
As per a report by news agency PTI, Varinder Singh of the 19th Sikh Regiment and Talwinder Singh of the 23rd Armoured Punjab Regiment were found to be either renewed or freshly issued from Jammu and Kashmir.
The arms licences of both Talwinder Singh of Kot Dharam Chand Klan in Amritsar district and Varinder Singh alias Fauji, who is currently incarcerated in Assam, were invalidated by the deputy commissioners of Ramban and Kishtwar districts respectively.
As per a cancelling order on March 9 this year, Varinder Singh's licence had not been renewed since July 24, 2017, the report stated.
According to the report quoting officials as saying, the recent revocations of arms licences would allow the Central Bureau of Investigation to interrogate some of the accused arrested by the Punjab Police under the National Security Act.
There have been cases of issuance of fake gun licences reported from Jammu and Kashmir, and the central probe agency has been investigating the matter.
On October 16, 2018, the CBI lodged the first set of FIRs over alleged malpractices in granting 2.78 lakh arms licences in 22 districts of Jammu and Kashmir between 2012 and 2016.
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In December 2019, the CBI conducted raids at a dozen locations in Srinagar, Jammu, Gurgaon, and Noida on the premises of the then district collectors and magistrates of Kupwara, Baramulla, Udhampur, Kishtwar, Shopian, Rajouri, Doda and Pulwama.
It has been alleged in the FIR that then public servants in connivance with other accused issued arms licences to non-residents of Jammu and Kashmir in violation of rules and received illegal gratification.
According to the officials, the pro-Khalistan preacher and Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh had been recruiting renegade ex-servicemen and drug addicts to establish an armed gang that could easily be transformed into a terrorist group.