The firearms that were seized from the truck. Picture by Nantu Dey

Raiganj, Dec. 2: A couple were arrested this afternoon after police recovered two crude firearms and eight rounds of live cartridges from the pick-up van they were travelling in.

The guns and seven bullets were inside an almirah that was on the vehicle. One cartridge was inside a bag.

Balbant Singh told the police that he, along with his wife Manjeet Kaur and four children, was on his way to Gaighata near the Bangladesh border in North 24-Parganas. Singh is a resident of Uttar Pradesh.

“But the vehicle (WB-59 8158) was registered in North Dinajpur. When we searched their belongings, we found a bullet inside the bag the woman was carrying. However, with people beginning to crowd around the truck, I took the vehicle to the Raiganj police station,” said sub-inspector Arun Chowdhury.

The officer was on duty around 2.30pm at Siliguri More on NH34. Vehicles on the national highway are being checked following the terror attacks in Mumbai.

Chowdhury said a steel almirah, four large trunks, four cots, cooking utensils and 10 bags — both big and small— containing clothes were on the truck.

“At the police station, I took the keys from the woman and unlocked the almirah. A country-made gun dismantled into two parts, two bullets and another crude handgun with five bullets tied around its butt were found on the shelf that was stuffed with clothes.”

The firearms and the ammunition were seized and the rest of the luggage thoroughly searched.

The woman said she was a resident of Chandpara village of Gaighata and had married Singh seven years ago. “I come home once in 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 in Chandapara. So we brought along the household articles. The guns are my husband’s and he had instructed me to keep them hidden. We had hired this pick-up in this district,” Manjeet said.

Singh said he was from Yarapur village in Shahjahanpur of Uttar Pradesh. “I am a farmer and we were on our way to my in-laws’ house. I had the guns for the security of our family.”

North Dinajpur superintendent of police Shankar Singha said there were a lot of inconsistencies in the couple’s statements.

“The man said they changed vehicles at Purnea More. We don’t see the logic behind the need to switch trucks. He also said the pick-up would have charged them Rs 4,500, but he had only a thousand rupees on him. We are yet to determine whether he would have collected the money from somewhere,” Singha said.

The district police chief also said if the man was so concerned about his family’s safety, the arms should not have been locked up in the almirah. “We have found a voter’s identity card belonging to the man but the woman was not carrying anything of that kind. We have arrested them and detained the driver,” Singha said.

Driver Muzaffar Hussain said Singh had approached him at Purnea and had said he wanted to travel to Gaighata.

“We had settled for Rs 4,500. He offloaded the goods from another small truck. Although I was a bit suspicious, I agreed because he had his family with him,” Hussain said.