LUCKNOW: An analysis of the number of guns sold to members of parliament (MPs) shows that between 2001 and 2012, around 82 MPspurchased guns from the government, of which 18 have pending criminal cases against them. The analysis done by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW) was released on Thursday. It is based on the data provided by the government to Ambrish Pandey under Right to Information.
Of the total 82 MPs who were sold guns between 2001-2012, highest 27 were from the Uttar Pradeh (UP) followed by six each from Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan, five each from Odisha and Karnataka, four each from Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh, three from Gujrat, two each from Haryana, Maharashtra, Punjab, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Delhi and Bihar and one each were from Meghalaya, Manipur, Sikkim Uttrakhand and Daman and Diu.
Significantly, out of 18 MPs who have criminal cases in police record, and bought guns between 2001 to 2012, highest (10) are from UP. These MPs are Atiq Ahmed, Rakesh Sachan, Afzal Ansari, Brajesh Pathak, Kapil Muni, Rakesh Pandey, RK Singh Patel, Dharam Raj Singh, S Saiduzzaman and Yashvir Singh. While MPs with two criminal cases each were from Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand and Odisha and one each from Maharashtra and Daman and Diu.
The 27 MPs, which includes 10 with criminal cases, from UP are from all the major political parties. Those without criminal cases are Babban Rajbhar, Pyarelal Sankhwar, Pyarelal Sankhwar, Sri Prakash Jaiswal, Rajnarain Budholia, Lal Chand, Ashok Kumar Rawat, Kirti Vardhan Singh, Mahender Prasad Nishad, Rajesh Kumar Mishra, Rampal Singh, Shaffikurrahman Burk, Shailendra Kumar, Mithlesh Kumar, Salim Ansari, Shyamlal and Bhai Lal Kol.
Further, amongst the 82 MPs who have been allotted guns from the government, Atiq Ahmed from Uttar Pradesh has 44 criminal cases including charges of murder, attempt to murder etc, followed by Abu Asim Azmi from Maharashtra and Rakesh Sachan from Uttar Pradesh with 7 cases each. These guns were seized by the customs and sold to MPs and VIPs on a first come first served basis. Earlier, guns were sold below market price but price was hiked recently.
The analysis shows that a total of 756 guns were sold to MPs and VIPs between 1987 and 2012. A total of 675 guns were sold between 1987 and 2001, 39 between 2001 and 2004, and 42 between 2005 and 2012. Between 2001 and 2012, 82 MPs have purchased guns from the government. Around 18 of these 82 MPs who were sold guns have pending criminal cases against them, including charges of murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping etc., at the time of sale.
Prominent MPs who purchased guns since 1987 include Syed Shahabuddin, Jayanti Natrajan, Akbar Ahmed Dumpy, Vinay Katyar, Uma Bharti, Mayawati, Jagdish Tytler, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Yogi Aditya Nath, KP Singh Deo, Vinod Khanna, Kalyan Singh, Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, Vasundhara Raje Scindia, Sibu Soren, Mohammad Shahbuddin, Rashid Alvi, Digvijay Singh, Abu Azmi and Renuka Choudhary. Some of them had VIP protection.
After 2002, a policy decision was taken that only MPs can be sold seized guns. Some guns are classified as prohibited but data provided by the Customs did not specify about prohibited or non-prohibited guns. Prohibited guns need special permission from the finance minister. In some cases, special permission was given for out of turn allotment of prohibited guns to MPs and VIPs. Ordinary citizens are not eligible for buying such guns even if they have a license.
The ADR report also includes comments of Ambrish Pandey on the data received through RTI: "This centralised sale point for VIPs under the finance ministry allows government to follow an ad hoc, discretionary and opaque policy of allotment. A gun was denied to ex-DG, Central Economic Intelligence Bureau, SPS Pundir despite security risk but allotted to another officer doing a desk job. The evidence shows over 40 exceptional allotments out of a total of 800."
The ADR has also raised questions questions: Why should such guns be sold only to MPs when some already have police protection? Why guns are sold to MPs with serious criminal cases against them? Does the Government track the possession of such guns after some years because it is known fact that the black market price of such guns is high. Why are prohibited guns sold to MPs and VIPs? Such weapons are used by the military, terrorist and extremist.
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