The special task force (STF) of the state police arrested Hamidul Sheikh, 34, with five firearms from the Loco Colony area of Baishnabnagar in Malda on Thursday.

STF sources said that Sheikh, a resident of the Kaliachak police station area, procured the illegal firearms from Bihar and planned to sell them within the district.

He was handed over to the district police and a case was filed against him under the Arms Act.

“He would be interrogated to gather information about the trading of illegal firearms. We suspect he is associated with a racket involved in such practice,” said an STF official.

Cannabis seized

A team of the Pundibari police station, acting on a tip-off, arrested three persons with 21.940kg of cannabis near a railway bridge at the Jagganarayanerkuthi area in Cooch Behar on Friday.

Papai Barman, Manin Chandra Barman and Biswajit Das, all of them from different places in Cooch Behar, were split between a motorcycle and an e-rickshaw when the police intercepted them.