A 17-year-old boy was arrested in the port area on Thursday with a jute bag containing four single-shot firearms. The Class XII student had come to the city from Bihar a few days ago. He told police that he was in Calcutta to sell the weapons.

Mohammad Mehtab Alam, the teenager, is a resident of Bhagalpur. ?It appears that he had purchased the weapons in the district and came here to deliver them to his clients. We are yet to find out who the boy was scheduled to meet,? said deputy commissioner of police (headquarters) Pradip Chatterjee.

Those who arrested Alam claimed they had received a tip-off that a boy was in the city to sell firearms. ?We activated our informers. We came to know that Alam would be in front of a hotel on CGR Road. Immediately, policemen were deployed on the spot,? said an officer of South Port police station.

The policemen were waiting in front of the hotel from 8 am, but Alam appeared only at 1 pm. ?Instead of immediately pouncing on him, we kept an eye on him. Jute bag in hand, he was standing in front of the hotel. It was clear that he was waiting for someone. Only then did we become certain that he was the person we were looking for,? said one of the plainclothesmen involved in the operation.

As soon as four policemen surrounded Alam, he tried to flee, but was wrestled to ground by the cops. ?He appeared a hard nut to crack. He was smart and answered some of our questions in English,? added the officer.

During interrogation, the teenager told police that he had visited the city thrice in the past two years to sell firearms. He also said that he had purchased the single-shot firearms for Rs 5,000-Rs7,000 each and would have sold them for Rs 10,000-Rs 12,000 each.