New Delhi, April 18: Politicians have a penchant for foreign-made arms as over a 100 leaders procured such weapons, confiscated by enforcement agencies, at throwaway prices in last 10 years, the reply to an RTI query has revealed.
Among the politicians include Coal Minister Shriprakash Jaiswal, Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur, Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi and former BJP MP Vinod Khanna.
This information was given by the government in response to an RTI application filed by social activist Ramesh Verma, seeking details about MPs who had purchased confiscated foreign-made fire arms.
According to the information provided, there is long waiting list of leaders waiting to buy confiscated foreign-made weapons as they are available at prices much lesser than that of the international market.
These weapons are confiscated by DRI, Customs and police and are meant to be used for use by government officials or are given to personnel authorised by the Finance Ministry.
Due to the long waiting list of MPs for procuring such weapons, the Finance Ministry allocates them on first-come-first serve basis.
As per the government policy, the MPs have to give in writing that at the time of purchasing, they should not have any other weapon with them.
Kaur procured a .357 Magnum revolver for Rs 34,065 (which costs Rs 56,700 in the international market), Vinod khanna also bought a similar pistol for Rs 23,000, and Kumkum Rai bought a colt pistol for Rs 58,000 (which costs Rs 1,36000 in foreign markets.)
The government reply said Jaiswal had procured a 7.65mm pistol worth Rs 1.3 lakhs, Janardan Dwivedi bought a .32 bore S&W revolver for Rs 1.45 lakhs. Former SP MP Abu Azmi bought a PPK pistol worth Rs 3 lakhs.
Only five women parliamentarians including Kaur along with former MPs Prerna Kariappa, Sushri Devi and Sangeeta Kumari Deo have purchased confiscated weapons, the reply states.
Some MPs with criminal records including Ateeq Ahmed, Afzal Ansari and Mohammed Shahabuddin also benefited by this government policy.
Ahmed procured a 30.06 mm rifle for Rs 3.15 lakhs costing Rs 3.60 lakhs in the international market.
According to the reply, “In the last 10 years, 103 MPs from Congress, BJP, BSP, INLD, AIADMK, BJD and PMK have purchased confiscated illegal foreign-made fire arms.”
—PTI