Collect Aadhaar no. of buyers: Madurai cops to sellers of knife, sickle

MADURAI: Police have instructed weapons manufacturers and sellers of knives, billhooks and sickles to collect all details of their customers including Aadhaar number before making the sale. The directive came at separate meetings held by Madurai city and district police with them in the wake of the recent statewide crackdown on anti-social elements following a series of revenge killings and criminal activities.

“Sales of kitchen knives or sickles for domestic purposes are understandable. However, we find many rowdies possess weapons like billhooks that are much bigger in size, and even swords. We have asked weapons manufacturers and sellers to hence collect all personal details possible of customers, including even Aadhaar number.

We also asked them to report any suspicious activity and for CCTV cameras to be installed on their premises,” said V Baskaran, Madurai district superintendent of police. He said station-wise meetings were held with weapons manufacturers and sellers in the area.

Police hope this move will help monitor movement of weapons to some extent. “The weapons manufacturers and sellers too want to keep themselves safe and so we are expecting them to co-operate. They may sell to rowdy elements out of compulsion. So we are hoping that they will alert the police quickly of any suspicious activity ,” said the SP.

Madurai, Othakadai, Nelpettai and Villapuram are prominent areas where weapon sellers and manufacturers are located. One such weapons seller, who did not want to be named, said they will try to follow the instructions but 100% compliance may not be possible immediately.

“We have mostly farmers coming in to buy tools for agriculture work. We will have to see how far customers will comply with it and we cannot force them in any way,” he added.