A view of the interior of N.C. Daw and Company, Kolkata
| Photo Credit: Facebook/N.C. Daw & Co. Kolkata 

Two workers from a popular arms dealer shop in Kolkata have been arrested for illegally selling arms from the heart of the city. They are suspected to have sold these arms illegally to gang members from outside the State and may have also been linked to the recent shootouts across West Bengal.

Both arms and cartridges were allegedly siphoned from the shop, NC Daw and Company, which has been operational since 1835, in central Kolkata’s BBD Bagh area. West Bengal Police’s Special Task Force (STF) had conducted the operation.

The two arrested employees, Jayanta Dutta and Santanu Sarkar, were employees of NC Daw and Co. shop. Mr. Dutta was arrested first along with four others, who were interrogated by the STF when they spilt the beans on Mr. Sarkar’s name.

A senior officer of the STF team said they have summoned all the other staff of the shop and were also intending to question the owners of the shop in relation to this case.

In recent investigations after the multiple shootouts across Bengal, the State police had realised that even if the arms were sourced from outside the State, many of the cartridges were from inside the State. This led to suspicion and further investigation.

In this operation, 190 factory-produced 7.65mm calibre live cartridges, nine 12-bore cartridges, and double-barrelled gun were recovered from the six arrested men.

It has been alleged that the two employees were working together to smuggle legal arms out of the shop in Kolkata and sell it illegally to gang members at hefty profits.

According to the police, this operation has been a breakthrough in and has helped expose a major illegal ammunitions supply chain in the State. The arrests have been made from various parts of the State and were done in coordination with the Jibantala Police across South 24 Parganas over the last week.

The linking of one of the oldest arms dealers from the heart of the city has raised questions about the safety protocols of the legal arms shops.

West Bengal has witnessed multiple shootouts in various parts of the State. In some cases, even the ruling party leaders were fatally injured and two of them were also killed in Malda district in broad daylight after they sustained fatal gunshot injuries. But whether any of these specific attacks were related to the arms that have been smuggled by the recently arrested persons has not been specified by the police till now.