CHENNAI : Five employees of a private security agency, including its manager, were arrested on charges of possessing fake gun licences.

Tiruvottiyur police registered a case a week ago following a robbery bid at a private steel yard in Tiruvottiyur. One of two security guards had opened fire from his gun to scare away the intruders.

Police investigations showed that the weapons were not registered and the licences could be fake. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Washermenpet) S. Rajendran said the gun licences possessed by the security guards appeared to be fake. According to their confession, they had purchased the weapons in Bihar and Nagaland. The private security agency has branches in around the country.

Interrogation of the agency's branch manager revealed that the weapons had not been registered with the local police station concerned as mandated by law, Mr Rajendran said. The arrested were Shoukath Ali, Shahabudeen Khan, Mohammed Bismillah Ansari, Mohammed Rasheed Alam and the manager T.O. Singh. Cases under the Indian Arms Act and forgery were registered against them and a city court remanded them to judicial custody.

A senior officer said the police conducted random checks with people who possessed weapons. "We thought the security guards had only done their job by opening fire to scare off the robbers. But our investigations showed the weapons were not registered." The case shows that police need to be more stringent in verification of weapons, the officer said.

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