Cuttack, Oct. 3: Police today busted an inter-state arms racket following arrest of two persons, including a juvenile, last night.

The accused were a 17-year-old boy from Araria in Bihar and Deepak Pradhan, 31, of Cuttack. Both were taken into custody from Bidanasi yesterday night.

Police commissioner R.P. Sharma said two sophisticated mausers, a country-made revolver and nine rounds of live ammunition were recovered from them.

Sources in the police also said that the juvenile used to bring arms illegally from Bihar through night buses. During interrogation, he has revealed that he had earlier brought five arms and supplied those to various people in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the juvenile had procured the arms from one Faizal of Bhagalpur, Bihar. The Mausers were being sold to local arms dealers at the price range of Rs 40,000 to 45,000.

“The kingpin of the trade has been identified and efforts are on to nab him. We will also send a special investigation team to Bihar to probe the issue,” Sharma said.

Another senior police official said the arrests assumed significance as it was for the first time that the cops had stumbled upon the trend of smuggling arms from neighbouring states through night buses. Special emphasis will be given on monitoring activities of various local suppliers. Efforts will also be initiated to put all inter-state night buses under surveillance, police said. The police had busted a similar arms racket and arrested two persons on August 22, 2011.

Six firearms, including four automatic pistols and two single-shot pistols, and 101 rounds of live ammunition were also seized.