Raiganj, Dec. 2: A couple from Uttar Pradesh were arrested in north Bengal this afternoon after two crude guns and bullets were found on the pick-up they were travelling in.

Balbant Singh told North Dinajpur police he was on his way to his in-laws, who live at Gaighata, near the Bangladesh border in North 24-Parganas. With him were his wife Manjeet and four children.

The guns and seven bullets were in a steel almirah. “We found a bullet in the woman’s bag and a country-made gun dismantled into two parts, two bullets and a crude handgun with five bullets tied around its butt in an almirah stuffed with clothes,” said sub-inspector Arun Chowdhury, who intercepted the vehicle at Siliguri More on NH34.

Vehicles on the national highway are being checked following the Mumbai attacks.

Chowdhury said the almirah, four trunks, cots, cooking utensils and 10 bags containing clothes were on the truck.

Manjeet said she was from Gaighata and had married Balbant seven years ago. “I come home once every two years and we usually travel by train. This time, my husband insisted that we go by road and he had planned to stay for a long time at Gaighata. So we brought the household articles.” She added that the vehicle was hired in North Dinajpur.

They had come up to Bengal in a truck hired at their native town Shahjahanpur. Balbant said: “I am a farmer and had kept the guns for the security of my family.”

District police chief Shankar Singha found many inconsistencies in what the Singhs said.