Imphal, March 15, 2010: Following the incident of injuring Advocate General N Koteshwar when Works Minister K Ranjit Singh 'accidentally' opened fire from the licensed gun of TD Minister DD Thaisii, the State Home Department has sought detailed report on all the licensed gun owners in every districts.

It is said that most of the licensed gun owners do not know the purpose of keeping the firearms.

Accordingly to a highly placed source, the Home Department has sought details of all those who have been given the license to own guns for self protection in every districts from the respective Deputy Commissioners after the incident of opening fire and injuring the Advocate General.

Acting on the instruction of the Home Department, with exemption to that of Churachandpur district, the Deputy Commissioners concerned of other districts have submitted the report and it has been detected that most of the licensed gun owners do not understand the purpose of owning the gun, the source added.

It is said that there are provisions for booking any person who use the licensed guns issued to them for self protection in crimes.

A licensed gun owner may possess upto three fire arms and if any of these fire arms were found involved in criminal activities, the owners may also be pulled up and booked under the Act.

It is expected that there may be around 7000 to 8000 licensed gun owners in Manipur at present.

At the time of auctioning the fire arms seized by the security forces in Manipur, the fire arms are issued to the successful bidders only after completing the required formalities including the legal procedure and processing of the file.

Even the order of handing over the fire arm after necessary payment is known only between the official who had issued the order and the purchaser.

On the other hand, in connection with the incident of injuring the Advocate General, the Governor had summoned a report from the Chief Minister.

Consequently, the Chief Minister has also submitted the report.

It may be recalled here that in the just concluded session of the State Assembly, the Chief Minister had revealed that out of 1928 guns confiscated since 1990, 108 have been disposed off.

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