Four businessmen from Bihar who are staying on rent in a Kalighat building in south Kolkata where chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s brother lives were asked to deposit their licensed firearms on Friday, police said.
The police said they told the four that they could take back the weapons before returning to Bihar.
“The owners have their firearms registered in Bihar. Since they are now not staying in the state where the firearms are licensed, we have taken the arms in our custody,” said a senior officer of Kalighat police station.
The police came to know that the four were in possession of firearms on Friday afternoon after guards at the building apparently saw them step out of their ground-floor apartment carrying guns.
The guards alerted Kalighat police station and a cop team soon reached the spot. The businessmen were asked to show documents of the firearms and taken to the police station for further questioning.
Officers said the area where the four were found carrying firearms was part of a high-security zone. “The chief minister’s brother lives in the building where the four stay on rent. The chief minister and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee’s homes are in the vicinity,” the officer said.
“There was nothing suspicious about the movement of the four men. Each has a licence for the firearm,” the officer said. “But we have asked them to deposit the firearms since they could not show any document that allows them to use the guns in any state other than Bihar.”
