One arrested with illegal stock of fireworks in Jaunpur
Varanasi: Police in Ballia and Jaunpur districts seized over 669 kg of illegally stored fireworks and explosive material and arrested four persons in separate operations conducted ahead of Diwali . In Ballia, the Kotwali police arrested three accused and recovered 19 sealed cartons of illegal fireworks and explosive material weighing around 419 kg, along with a pickup van. They were identified as Rahul Gupta (26), Rajkumar (40) and Jwala Sah (25).
During questioning, Rahul allegedly told police that he and his brothers, Rajkumar and Bhola Gupta, had procured and stocked the fireworks from Amar Jaiswal of Ballia, Aslam Bhai of Kakori Bazaar in Lucknow and Parshuram of Ballia for sale despite not possessing the required licence. Jwala Sah, the driver of the pickup van, told police that he had been hired by the Guptas to transport the fireworks and had not verified whether they held a valid licence for the trade. Rampur SHO Ramesh Kumar received information that Subhash Chandra Gupta, a resident of Rampur town, had stocked a large quantity of fireworks at his house and was selling them without permission, according to police.
In Jaunpur, the Rampur police arrested one person and recovered more than two quintals of illegally stored fireworks. Kotwali SHO Praveen Kumar Singh said, acting on a tip-off that a large consignment of illegal fireworks was being loaded into a vehicle in a lane opposite the English liquor shop on Krishna Nagar-Bedua Road, a police team raided the spot on Friday night and detained three persons.