Malda, Aug. 28: Police raided an illegal arms manufacturing unit in a Bashnabnagar village last night and arrested one person.

Two newly-manufactured guns were recovered from a shanty made of bamboo and tin in a litchi orchard at Chakseherdi, about 50km from here. The police said equipment used to manufacture the firearms was also seized.

According to the police, Mohammad Firoz, 30, who was arrested from the spot, confessed that he had been involved in manufacturing the improvised arms for the past one month. Firoz, the police said, was a resident of Munger district in Bihar.

"We had received specific information that arms were being manufactured in the village. We raided the spot around 9pm on Thursday. We arrested one person and seized equipment like lathe machine, hack saws, iron files, and nuts and bolts used for manufacturing the firearms," a source in the Baisnabnagar police station said.

The source said Feroz had said he used to be paid Rs 1,000 for each pipe gun he made. "Feroz said there was another person from Bihar to assist him but he managed to flee the spot during the raid," the source said.

As Chakseherdi is barely 10km from the border with Bangladesh, the police are interrogating Feroz to find out who the main persons behind the racket were.

Firoz was produced in the court of the chief judicial magistrate in Malda today and remanded in 10 days' police custody.

Malda police superintendent, Prasun Banerjee, said the firearms made at Feroz's unit were of high quality. "The two firearms recovered from the spot are well-made. The raiding party recovered the equipment used for making the guns. We are trying to locate the owner of the litchi orchard. We are also interrogating the arrested person to get the names of the main people involved. The chief judicial magistrate's court has sent him to 10 days' police remand," Banerjee said.