Bhubaneswar police have arrested a 33-year-old man and seized two illegal semi-automatic pistols and eight rounds of ammunition after a viral video of him allegedly carrying out blank firing at a festival led investigators to him. The Special Crime Unit of the commissionerate police is now probing a suspected interstate supply chain linked to Munger in Bihar.
The accused, identified as Biswajit Behera of Gobindpur in Cuttack district, was intercepted near the block office in Balipatna on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar on Friday. According to DCP (SCU) Anup Kumar Kanungo, the police placed Behera under surveillance after coming across the video and acted on a tip-off before searching his vehicle.
“A search led to the recovery of the two firearms and eight bullets,” Kanungo said, according to the report. Police suspect that Behera had links with interstate arms dealers. During interrogation, he allegedly told investigators that he had bought the weapons from a Bhubaneswar-based supplier who sourced them from Munger, a major centre for illegal firearms manufacturing.
Police are investigating the alleged supply chain, the financial transactions involved in the purchase and Behera’s possible links with other criminal networks. The accused allegedly told investigators that he had procured the firearms for self-protection because he feared attacks by anti-social elements in connection with his sand mining business.
Kanungo said Behera had previously been booked in five cases involving criminal intimidation and assault at Olatpur and Gobindpur police stations in Cuttack district during the past year. The report did not specify the charges filed in the current case or whether the suspected supplier had been identified or arrested.
The seizure comes as Bhubaneswar and its surrounding urban areas have recorded three firing-related incidents in the past three months. On November 7, a youth was shot dead at point-blank range in Laxmisagar, allegedly in connection with gang rivalry. Two days earlier, a man died after being accidentally shot with an illegal firearm during celebratory firing in the Sisupalgarh area.
On September 21, miscreants allegedly resorted to blank firing during a group clash in Bharatpur after an objectionable social media remark. The incidents have heightened concerns over the circulation and use of illegal firearms in and around the city, although the police have not stated that all three cases are connected to the racket uncovered through the viral video.
The Special Crime Unit’s investigation will focus on tracing the suspected Bhubaneswar-based supplier, examining the money trail and determining whether the arrested man had wider links to criminal networks. Police action on those aspects is pending.
