Police on Friday unearthed eight mini gun factories and seized three finished and 18 unfinished country-made pistols apart from a large number of raw materials and instrument used for making guns.

The instrument included drilling machines and wires among other things. Munger superintendent of police (SP) Varun Kumar Sinha confirmed the recovery. Sinha said the police had conducted raids on eight mini factories acting a tip-off. He claimed that the factories were running under the patronage of Maoists. The rebels have a strong presence in Munger and Jamui and in districts adjoining Jharkhand. “The Munger police raided the hilltops and recovered the huge cache of arms with the help of special task force,” said the SP.

The officer said the police had nabbed the owner of the illegal arms factory, Raja Ram Paswan, a resident of Bilia village under the jurisdiction of Haveli Kharagpur police station of Munger district. Director-general of police P.K. Thakur has congratulated the Munger police and had asked the SP to send a list of officers involved in the raids for medals in a function to be held in Sonepur fair.

Munger has been the epicentre of illegal arms business for a long time. One of the main reasons is the ammunition factory of the government and former employees are reported to be involved in the business of making illegal arms. According to intelligence reports, the demand for illegal arms shoots up during election.

Robbery

Armed criminals robbed a transporter, Umesh Bhagat, of Rs 2 lakh near Madnani lane on Friday evening. Bhagat was on his way to deposit the money when the motorcycle-borne criminals snatched the bag containing the money from him at gun point.