Om Singh, who had been arrested thrice in connection with his illegal firearms racket earlier, was taken into custody from the capital recently when he had come here for some work.
After his arrest, police also busted his factory at Lalpur village in Meerut district and recovered a huge cache of firearms from there.
The accused was found running illegal firearms factory since 1980 and supplying thousands of illegal arms to various criminals and gangsters of Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab for criminal activities, a senior police official said.
During interrogation, Singh said he learnt the technique of manufacturing firearms from his maternal uncle Saroop and began supply them to local criminals of Meerut and Hapur.
"As he had expertise in manufacturing these firearms, his business flourished in various districts of UP and further extended to Delhi, Haryana and Punjab. During this period, his illegal factories were busted thrice but after release from jail, he continued his illegal racket," DCP, Special Cell, Sanjeev Kumar Yadav said.
Singh used to charge Rs 2,000 for a country made pistol and told police that he used to source raw material from iron-waste markets of Ghaziabad and Meerut.
