Calcutta: A man who has been working at a licensed arms shop in Dalhousie over the last two decades was arrested in Baruipur, South 24-Parganas, on Monday for allegedly selling ammunition illegally to unlicensed buyers.

The Special Task Force (STF) of the Bengal police arrested Shantanu Sarkar, from Champahati, South 24-Parganas, after it emerged that he had allegedly sold arms and ammunition to a gang dealing with illegal arms across the state.

Five people, including Sarkar’s colleague from the Dalhousie shop, were arrested earlier in connection with a probe into the illegal supply of arms and ammunition.

Police said Sarkar had allegedly supplied a double-barrel gun to Hazi Rashid Mollah, 71, who sold it to Faruk Mullick, who was arrested in Haroa, North 24-Parganas, on Saturday.

Sarkar’s colleague Jayanata Dutta and Mollah were arrested on Friday night.

Around 190 rounds of ammunition were seized from the arrested, the biggest haul in recent times, the police said.

Dutta was arrested in Shantipur, Nadia.

The arrests were in connection with an arms case registered with Jibantala police station in South 24-Parganas.

“The shop in Dalhousie where the two of the six accused — Sarkar and Dutta — worked has been sealed. We have summoned the owner for questioning. It appears the stock records of arms and ammunition were not maintained properly at this shop,” said a senior police officer.

In Champahati, Sarkar’s mother told reporters her son has been working at the shop since 2004.

“The police never summoned him. I was not at home when the police came. My son called me and asked to return to his daughter,” she said.

The arrests have raised questions about police surveillance of licensed arms shops in the city.

The arms act division of the Reserve Force of Kolkata Police oversees the sale of ammunition and arms
from licensed arms shops. But the arrests revealed those responsible for running checks had not done their jobs, a section of senior police officers said.

“An officer of the rank of inspector has to be present when a consignment of either arms or ammunition reaches a licensed shop in Calcutta,” an officer said.

“The stock is upgraded in his presence and at the end of the month, the shop owner has to provide a ‘closure statement’ to the police. Officers must physically run checks to ascertain if the numbers mentioned in the statement tallies with the ones in the shop.”

STF officers said they seized record books of the shop and will scan the transaction details of arms and ammunition of the last five years to find out how the decades-old shop functioned.