Hyderabad Police display the swords and daggers seized from the 12 detained men
Twelve men were detained for illegally purchasing deadly weapons like swords and daggers online and posting them on social media, the Hyderabad police said in a press conference. The accused allegedly spread the images on social media to spread panic in the public.
The police seized 10 swords, two daggers and a long knife from the 12 accused, after simultaneous raids in various locations.
The raids were conducted by the Hyderabad police's North Zone team after receiving intelligence from the Commissioner's Task Force. The accused have been identified as Sood Aman Singh, Tusam Kunal Singh, Sudheer Singh, Mohammed Salman, Mohammed Mujeeb, Musthafa Hussain, Bisent Shashikanth Singh, Mohammed Yaseen Ahamed, Mohammed Rawoof, Salman Khan, Mohammed Sirajuddin and Mohammed Sohail.
The police said that the accused bought the deadly weapons through online portal Snapdeal. They then posted images with the weapons on social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp "to create panic in the public", Deputy Commissioner P Radhakishan Rao told reporters.
"In this connection, it is our appeal to the citizens to not purchase prohibited sharp edge deadly arms like daggers, swords, knives, etc and do not take photos with the prohibited arms and post on social media" he said.
Deputy Commissioner Rao also advised online portals like Snapdeal, Amazon and Flipkart to not sell or deliver prohibited arms to buyers and urged people to report those in violation of the Arms Act. He said that e-commerce firms selling prohibited weapons will be charged under the arms act.
The Deputy Commissioner said that the accused have been handed over to the SHO's of seven different police stations.