Two teens upload photos with guns on social media, land in police net
NATIONAL | April 11, 2019:
Moments after they clicked photographs and recorded videos of themselves firing from illegal pistols, two teenagers WhatsApped the images and videos to a select group of trusted friends. For over a month, the photos and videos kept circulating until a police officer became a link in the chain of the WhatsApp forwards.
The officer took a while to establish the identities of the duo featuring in the photos and videos. But when police caught the two from west Delhi's Dwarka on Monday, they were allegedly found carrying the same weapons seen in the pictures.
Police identified the arrested duo as 19-year-old Salil (name changed) and 18-year-old Asaf (name changed). According to Anto Alphonse, deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka), the photographs and videos were taken moments after Salil had purchased a semi-automatic pistol from Asaf last month.
"Salil liked to call himself 'Badshah', based on the Bollywood film he was inspired by. He wanted the gun to impress his girlfriend and other friends. His friend Asaf is into selling illegal guns," said the DCP.
While Asaf has no police record, Salil was apprehended as a minor in 2017 for allegedly killing an executive of a private firm during a robbery bid in Dwarka, police said. Both are residents of Kakrola village of Dwarka and are school dropouts, police said.
The duo had met early last month. The DCP said Salil wanted to purchase a gun and had approached Asaf, who arrived with a regular desi pistol and a semi-automatic countrymade pistol. "Salil checked both the weapons and settled for the semiautomatic one," said the DCP.
Moments later, Salil allegedly fired a test round to celebrate the purchase. Police said Asaf took photos and videos of the event before they changed roles. They then allegedly dispatched the photos and videos to their small circle of friends with a request to not forward them anymore.
"One of those friends ignored the requests and that set off a forward chain. One of the receivers of the videos and photos was a police informer. He forwarded them to a policeman after which the officers of Dwarka North police station turned active," said an investigator.
The arrests come just days after two other alleged criminals were arrested from Dwarka district after they allegedly uploaded videos of them dancing with illegal pistols on social media site TikTok. In that case, police had said that the arrested duo had hoped to get noticed by big gangsters and get inducted into their gangs.
Source: HT
