Munger: Bihar's illegal weapons manufacturing hub
Chandra Shekhar Azad stands at Azad Chowk, the centre of Munger town, his body awash in silver paint, his left hand twirling his moustache. His right wrist has been left limp after an unruly crowd hit it during a procession, but the grip on the pistol hasn't loosened. The statue of the freedom fighter and the symbolism are hard to miss in Munger, about which, the saying goes, "Ye aslahon ka dayar hai, yahan buzdili ki baat kya (it is a place housing arms, no place for cowardice here)."
Related: Rampant use of children in arms smuggling in Munger
Related: Rampant use of children in arms smuggling in Munger
Guns and Munger: Since Mir Qasim (Nawab of Bengal from 1760-63) shifted his capital to Munger and set up an arms factory here, this town in eastern Bihar has been part of this double-barreled identity. Now it is the hub of the country's illegal gun trade, from where sophisticated guns find their way to markets in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana and Punjab. Last month, the Delhi Police seized 99 pistols, hidden to their surprise behind the headlights of an Ambassador car coming from Munger. The consignment was meant to be delivered to someone in Meerut.
The town has 37 legal gun units manufacturing 12-bore shotguns, but demand for these long-barreled guns, seen as unwieldy and slow, fell when illegal units in Munger began making hipper revolvers, pistols and carbines. The state government's licensing policy making it difficult to own a legal weapon was just the trigger. Against a standard two months to get a licence, in Bihar, the process takes not less than one-two years, including rigid identification norms and recommendation of authorities from block level right up to the licensing authority, the district magistrate.
As demand boomed, Munger's illegal guns too evolved—from kattas, the crude, single-shot .303 caliber desi guns, in the 1960s and '70s to fine replicas of once favoured international brands such as Webley & Scott and Benelli and Beretta. Grimy underground units churn these out with inscriptions such as 'Made in US' and 'Only for Army Supply'. The vast riverine belt of the Ganga, which flows through Munger, is an ideal setting for the illegal units. As information about police raids gets passed around quickly, the sandy riverbeds and huts on the banks are handy for manufacturers to hide weapons and equipment. Bara-Maksaspur and Bardah villages in Munger are two of the most notorious centres of the illegal industry.
Dipak Kumar, in-charge sub-inspector of the Qasim Bazar police station under which Bara falls, warns against venturing into these villages—journalists asking about guns and the illegal trade aren't welcome, he says. So he insists on accompanying us to Bara, a village with a population of over 8,000 where over 30 per cent of the households are estimated to be involved in the illegal manufacture and supply of pistols and carbines. Three years ago, then Munger superintendent of police Sunil Naik raided Bara after deploying 1,000 policemen over two shifts to surround the village. The three-day exercise led to the seizure of over 50 lathe, milling and drilling machines, used for manufacturing and assembling illegal arms. But such exercises are few and far between.
Mohammed Karmuddin's son Mehboob recently got out on bail. Mehboob is away, so the sub-inspector gets Karmuddin to show us the underground cell where he ran his weapons unit until a few months ago. Here, empty frames of four lathe, milling and grinding machines lie covered in dust. These machines, each costing around Rs 10 lakh, were so heavy that the police could only remove their parts as proof of what they had seized. As Karmuddin talks, a small hostile crowd builds up around his house. The sub-inspector next takes us to the house of Munna Poddar, who allegedly also had an underground cell. But the house is locked.
