Bhubaneswar, May 26: Police arrested two persons, including a Cuttack-based builder, for keeping illegal arms and ammunition.

The cops seized two pistols, one air gun, a revolver and 13 live bullets from the accused.

Following a tip off, the police raided the Sailashree Vihar residence of Biswanath Swain, 32, this morning and found illegal objects.

Swain, a native of Niali in Cuttack district, has several robbery and murder attempt cases lodged against him at various police stations of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, the police said.

On the basis of Swain’s statement, the police arrested a real estate owner, Dillip Panda, 34, a native of Soro in Balasore district, and seized a revolver. The cops said Panda was involved in a shooting at incident under Madhupatna police station in 2010.

The police suspected that Panda had been been running a business of illegal arms.

“Preliminary investigations revealed that Panda had supplied the arms to Swain, who had bought them at prices ranging between Rs 30,000 and Rs 50,000,” said police commissioner R.P Sharma, adding that the police would bring both Panda and Swain under remand to find out the involvement of other people in the trading of illegal weapons.

Further investigations by the police revealed that three non-bailable warrants had been pending against Swain and a number of cases under Arms Act have been registered against him.

“Preliminary investigations revealed that Panda used to procure fire arms from Jharkhand. We are further investigating whether Swain had committed any crime for Panda,” said a police official.

This is the third incident of recovery of arms in Bhubaneswar in 10 days. On May 19, two persons were arrested for keeping weapons illegally. Police had seized one pistol and four rounds of live bullets from the accused. On May 18, the cops had busted a gang of robbers and seized a pistol and six bullets. The Bhubanewar-Cuttack police have seized as many as 37 firearms in the past eight months.

The police suspect legal armouries in the state are supplying bullets to the goons.

“Though the firearms are being smuggled from Bihar and Jharkhand, the seizure of so may bullets in the past few months have raised the suspicion on legal armouries in the state,” said a police official.