A small, illegally run cartridge-making unit uncovered in Bihar's East Champaran district has turned out to have a reach far beyond the state, with investigators tracing its supply lines into Nepal, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
A supply chain stretching across borders
Early findings from the police probe show that the ammunition rolled out of this unit was never meant only for local buyers. Detectives have already picked up leads connecting the operation to more than one criminal network, and the arrested men are being questioned repeatedly so officers can map out how the whole chain actually functioned. The cross-border angle worries investigators the most, since East Champaran sits along a porous stretch of the India-Nepal frontier, and consignments moved through it can slip into neighbouring states with relative ease. Officers believe this is exactly why the unit stayed hidden for as long as it did, tucked away from the state's main towns.
A rented house in Ojha Tola ran the operation
The illegal unit was set up inside a rented house in Ojha Tola village, under the jurisdiction of the Chakia police station. It was allegedly run by Srikant Singh, a resident of Madpa Mohan village in the Fenhara police station area. Cartridges were assembled at this spot before being routed out to different states and to pockets along the border, according to police.
Four held, large haul of material seized
During the raid, officers arrested Srikant Singh along with Rambabu Paswan, Bali Alam and Rahmat Miyan. A sizeable stock of finished cartridges was recovered from the spot, along with the raw material used in manufacturing, chemicals and equipment tied to the process. The scale of the recovery suggests the unit had been operating for a while before it was caught, feeding a steady stream of ammunition into the wider black market.
Phones, contacts and money trails under the scanner
To identify exactly which individuals and gangs received these consignments, officers are now going through the accused men's mobile phones, their contact lists and their financial transactions. This part of the probe is expected to reveal how deep the network runs and whether more people were financing or distributing the cartridges further afield.
Police say the full network will be traced
Santosh Kumar Singh, the SDPO of Chakia, said the four accused were linked to a network involved in manufacturing, storing and selling illegal cartridges. He added that police are working to establish exactly how many cartridges the gang had produced so far and where all of it had been sent across different states and border areas. With the investigation still underway, officers say more arrests linked to this network cannot be ruled out, and every lead thrown up by the interrogations is being followed through.
