[Bengia Ajum]
KOLORIANG, 21 Apr: In a major drive against a fake arms licence racket, the Kurung Kumey police have arrested one person and seized 13 illegal weapons, including eight 12 bore SBBL guns, two .22 bore rifles, and one .32 revolver.
Most of the weapons were recovered from Tali and Pipsorang in Kra Daadi district. Forty-two-year-old Tagio Pata, who works as a computer operator at the Kra Daadi DC office, has been arrested by the police for his alleged involvement in the racket.
The investigation into the fake arms licence racket started last year. On 9 May, 2022, a written complaint was received by the police from the Kurung Kumey DC, stating that “one fake arm licence in the name of the Kurung Kumey DC was received from Rajdhani Arms House, Naharlagun.” Based on it, the police registered a case (Koloriang PS Case No 05/22 u/s 468/471 IPC), and Sub-inspector Giogi Tape was made the investigation officer.
During the course of the investigation, firearms were recovered from 10 different persons in Tali and Pipsorang in Kra Daadi district.
“During the investigation, one Tagio Pata, who is an employee of the DC office Kra Daadi, emerged as our prime suspect. We conducted raids at several locations, but he kept evading,” informed Kurung Kumey SP Bomken Basar.
The police then zeroed in on the place where he used to make fake arm licences.
“He has a printing press shop in Itanagar, where he used to make fake arms licences. Our team seized two computer hard disks and two pen drives from the printing press and sent them to the FSL. His specimen signature has also been sent for the opinion of a handwriting expert,” the SP informed.
Meanwhile, the prime suspect managed to get anticipatory bail, and later a regular bail.
However, his luck soon ran out. “On 4 April, 2023, a written complaint was again received from DC Kurung Kumey that a person named Tagio Pata had made many fake arms licences in the name of the office of DC Kurung Kumey and many have purchased firearms using these fake arms licences,” the police said, and added that an inquiry was launched, based on the complaint.
“As a result, three 12 bore SBBL guns were recovered from Tali in Kra Daadi district. Accordingly, a case (Klg PS Case No 09/2023, u/s 468/471/120 B IPC r/w Section 25 of the Arms Act) was registered on 9 April, 2023, and the case was endorsed to DSP Rishi Longdo for investigation,” the SP said.
The police finally arrested Tagio Pata on 17 April.
“During interrogation, he confessed that he made many fake/forged documents of ST, PRC, Aadhaar cars, driving licence, trading licence, birth certificates, etc, for a long time, and that he started making fake arm licences somewhere from the year 2015. He used to take Rs 20,000 for making one fake arm licence,” the SP added.
The alleged accused is now in judicial custody, and investigation is ongoing.
“He has revealed some more names that we are working on. We hope to recover more illegal weapons in the coming days,” the SP said.
As per the police, Pata is an expert in computers and can manipulate the documents very cleverly. “He does such a good job that it is difficult to differentiate between the original and the fake. Kurung Kumey is a very sensitive district and we want to come down hard against any illegal arms licence racket, considering that the assembly as well as the general elections are just months away,” the SP added.
