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‘Miscreants’ prefer crude street weapons

BERHAMPUR: Miscreants of the city now prefer to transform common household items to be used as weapons to avoid the visibility of common weapons.

During recent months most of the weapons seized from miscreants by the police teams of different police stations of the city are of this category. Criminals are no more interested to spend money on buying swords and knives that are their common weapons, said a senior police officer of the city. They are interested to bring in small changes in common items like iron rods, motorcycle spoke, pipe pieces etc at roadside blacksmiths.

Inspector In-Charge of Town police station Abhimanyu Nayak said miscreants were trying to reduce the visibility of their weapons through this process.

A shining sword is quite noticeable from a distance. But a long pipe flattened up and sharpened on one side is usually missed to be identified as a weapon unless it is watched closely. Similarly knives and axes of all shapes and sizes are made from small iron rods at blacksmiths shops.

The motorcycle spokes are made pointed on one end and a handle is attached to its another end, so that it becomes a weapon that can pierce. This spoke can easily be hidden in a cycle or bike. At times policemen find it hard to name these innovative crude street weapons in their charge sheets. Recently some miscreants have started welding small sharp pieces to cycle chains to increase their lethality.

Policemen feel these weapons are used by the criminal gangs to create panic for extortion.

"It is quite hard to put check on the production of these weapons as it means closure of shops of blacksmiths who also make similar household goods", they say.

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