Arms dealer’s suicide: 2 more held He was harassed by loan sharks

Abhishek Awasthi.

Ballia: Police detained two people, including a BJP politician, on Thursday after a weapons dealer reportedly shot himself during a Facebook Live while being hounded by loan sharks. Shailendra Singh Pappu and Hanuman Singh, the main suspects, were detained in connection with the suicide of a weapons dealer on Station Road in the Kotwali area, said Superintendent of Police R K Nayyar. Pappu is a BJP politician in the area. Dev Narayan Singh Puna, Ajay Singh, and Alok Singh were apprehended by police on Wednesday. According to authorities, eight persons have been detained in connection with the investigation so far.Sunil Mishra Raju alias Rajeev Mishra and Awadhesh Thakur have also been apprehended. According to Nayyar, the accused’s land registry on the victim’s land has been annulled.Furthermore, the accused’s land and property, as well as their sources of income, are being probed, he added. The officer had previously said that the accused would face prosecution under the Gangsters Act. Dev Narayan Singh Puna, one of the detained suspects, is also a BJP worker. Pankaj Singh, the BJP’s district media in-charge, has acknowledged that the detained suspects Shailendra Singh Pappu and Dev Narayan Singh Puna are local BJP officials.  Puna’s wife is the party head of the Dubhar block of the district.Nandlal Gupta, a local weapons dealer who lived on Station Road in the Kotwali neighbourhood of Ballia city, allegedly committed himself on February 1 after becoming fed up with harassment by loan sharks. In this context, police have filed charges against 13 identifiable and five unnamed individuals.