Patna, Feb 24 (IANS): An illicit mini gun factory in Bihar's Arwal district was busted in a joint operation by Bihar Police, Bihar STF, and Kolkata STF on Friday, and a haul of weapons and equipment seized, officials said.

Superintendent of Police, Arwal, Vidya Sagar said 14 accused, including 9 arms artisans and two women, were arrested during the raid and a huge cache of arms, ammunition, finishing machines, a lathe machine, and raw materials were seized as well.

Arwal police received an input about the mini gun factory from Kolkata STF.

"We had learnt that a mini gun factory was operational in a house of Nagendra Kumar Singh alias Mukesh Patel in Radhe Bigha village under Karpi police station in the district. Accordingly, we have constituted a special team headed by SDPO, Sadar, Rajiv Ranjan and personnel of Bihar STF and Kolkata STF and conducted the raid. We have arrested 14 persons including 9 arms artisans who belong to Munger district of Bihar," the SP said.

During investigation, it appeared that Nagendra Kumar Singh’s son Sumit Kumar Singh and nephew Raushan Kumar Singh alias Laddu were operating the gun factory.

“We have arrested Nagendra Kumar Singh, his son Sumit Kumar Singh, nephew Raushan Kumar Singh, wife Durga Devi, and Raushan’s wife Arti Kumari during the raid apart from 9 arms artisans," he added.

The arrested artisans were identified as Sunil Kumar Das, Dashrath Shah, Pankaj Kumar, Nandu Choudhary, Rahul Kumar, Vishal Kumar, Sanjay Kumar Shah, Aashish Kumar Sharma, and Praveen Kumar.

The joint team also seized 6 semi-automatic pistols, 6 partially-manufactured, semi-automatic pistols, 6 pistol bodies, 7 pistol sliders, 6 barrels, 7 live cartridges of 7.65 bore, a lathe machine, a drill machine, 3 electric grinders, an electric welding machine, 3 grinding cutters and other raw materials and machineries from the house.