Delhi Police on Wednesday arrested five people namely Mohd Sahil, Wasim, Mohd Yusuf, Ashish Chawla and Mayank Babbar and recovered 14,053 prohibited, button-activated knives, which were illegally traded from China for selling online.
A case has been registered under the Arms Act at Chittaranjan Park Police Station.
The accused Mohd Sahil disclosed that he registered himself on Online Shopping Apps so as to sell these knives online through his company in the name of 'My Style.' He further disclosed that Mohd. Yusuf was working for him and transported the illegal knives from Sadar Bazar to Malviya Nagar.
Mohd. Yusuf further revealed that he used to purchase the illegal knives from another accused, Ashish Chawla who used to place orders in China to the particular vendor and the payment was made by Mayank Babbar @ Mickey (owner) of K2M Importer & Exporters, whose office is at China, from where the items were sent to India through the container, with the items of the other vendors.
"Keeping in view of the facts revealed during the investigation conducted so far we further see leading e-market platforms like Flipkart etc for selling the same illegal knives on their portal. Moreover, with the arrest and recovery we have busted a nefarious Indo-Chinese module which has been bulk importing prohibited button-actuated knives from China for sale in India," DCP South District, Benita Mary Jaiker said in a press conference.
He further added, "The investigation now onwards will focus on the lapses, if any, on the part of regulatory and facilitating authorities like customs, DGFT and on the abettors of the crime which include leading online markets where the product has been listed for sale by the arrested accused. We are also looking at the possibility of involvement of Chinese state actors who might be in collision with the arrested Indians into pushing the contraband and to find out what else has been pushed into India under camouflaged names and titles."
The sale of such knives is banned in India under the Arms Act. Section 4 of the Arms Act, 1956 read with rules in Arms Rule, 1962 states that no person should by any way acquire, possess, sell and use knives having a blade which is 9" long and has a wide breadth up to 2" broader for any purpose other than the purpose of domestic, agricultural, scientific, industrial purposes, or steel batons.
The use of knives to create disturbance or rupture in any way public tranquillity, peace or if such piece of weapon creates an environment of fear would also be charged under the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973.
( With inputs from ANI )
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