Varanasi: Police in Ballia and Jaunpur districts seized over 669 kg of illegally stored fireworks and explosive material and arrested four persons in separate operations conducted ahead of Diwali.In Ballia, the Kotwali police arrested three accused and recovered 19 sealed cartons of illegal fireworks and explosive material weighing around 419 kg, along with a pickup van.Kotwali SHO Praveen Kumar Singh said, acting on a tip-off that a large consignment of illegal fireworks was being loaded into a vehicle in a lane opposite the English liquor shop on Krishna Nagar-Bedua Road, a police team raided the spot on Friday night and detained three persons. They were identified as Rahul Gupta (26), Rajkumar (40) and Jwala Sah (25).A search of the pickup van led to the recovery of 14 sealed cartons of fireworks of different brands. Subsequent searches at the houses of the accused resulted in the seizure of five more cartons.During questioning, Rahul allegedly told police that he and his brothers, Rajkumar and Bhola Gupta, had procured and stocked the fireworks from Amar Jaiswal of Ballia, Aslam Bhai of Kakori Bazaar in Lucknow and Parshuram of Ballia for sale despite not possessing the required licence.Jwala Sah, the driver of the pickup van, told police that he had been hired by the Guptas to transport the fireworks and had not verified whether they held a valid licence for the trade.In Jaunpur, the Rampur police arrested one person and recovered more than two quintals of illegally stored fireworks.According to police, Rampur SHO Ramesh Kumar received information that Subhash Chandra Gupta, a resident of Rampur town, had stocked a large quantity of fireworks at his house and was selling them without permission.When police reached the house, they found a crowd of customers. The buyers fled on seeing the police, while Gupta was apprehended. A search of the premises led to the recovery of 10 sacks containing different types of fireworks. Police said further investigation is under way.
