“Until we fix men, we need to fix the gun problem,” tweeted comedian Michael Ian Black in the face of mass shootings in America. This is becoming only too relatable in India, with people killed in spur-of-the-moment outbursts and now celebratory firings. Why men feel the need to carry guns and fire in the air is again a notion deeply enshrined in the toxic masculinity that we live with.

One of the most recent victims of this is Archana Gupta—an architect who was fatally injured by a stray bullet while out celebrating the coming of a new year when a drunk former Janata Dal United (JDU) MLA Raju Singh fired in the air.

The same night, an eight-year-old boy was killed by a stray bullet when celebrating outside his home in North East Delhi’s Usmanpur. The child’s father, Yasin Mallik, has been charged with murder. Mallik acknowledged to the police that he had taken the firearm from Ravi Kashyap, a resident of Puja Colony, Loni, in UP. DCP North East, Atul Kumar Thakur says the gun was unlicensed, and that Kashyap had acquired it from his cousin who also lives in UP.

These two incidents bring to the forefront the trigger-happy actions of people. We look into the cases, past and present, and at how many firearm licenses have been given to persons in Delhi and its neighbouring states.  

Murder at midnight

Archana Gupta’s husband Vikas detailed the incidents of the night that changed in his life in a complaint filed with the police. The couple spent their last evening together at Rose Farm which belongs to his friend Sanjeev Singh “whom I have known for more than 25 years”. Singh’s brother is the accused, former MLA Raju Singh.

At about midnight, Gupta says “there were celebrations and dancing on the DJ floor”. He, his wife and his daughter hugged and wished each other and then Archana returned to the dancefloor. At the same time, he saw Hari Singh, Raju Singh’s driver, fire two rounds from his gun in the air while Raju Singh fired 4-5 rounds.

Nothing untoward had happened till then. But five minutes later, Raju Singh fired again. Gupta wrote: “I suddenly noticed that Archana had fallen down and I rushed towards her. She was unconscious and had blood on her face and near her on the DJ floor.” With the help of guests, he took her to Fortis Hospital in Vasant Kunj. Archana died on January 3.

The police found that the bullet which claimed Archana’s life was a .22 pistol bullet and not from a rifle.

The rifle that Hari Singh held was registered in his name in 2001. Both had the required permits. Raju Singh’s pistol has licences for five states, according to DCP South, Vijay Kumar. Three of these states are Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Raju Singh had told the police he sought the licence due to the threat of Naxal attacks in his home state of Bihar. The police had earlier seized two rifles and 800 bullets from Raju Singh’s farmhouse in south Delhi’s Vasant Kunj area.

It’s not known why Raju Singh needed to maintain a stock of hundreds of bullets in the capital city. The DCP says that persons having licences of various states have to inform the licensing authorities when they enter one with the gun. In this case, Raju Singh had done the needful.

The DCP explains that someone like Raju Singh would get a license easily. “He was an MLA and his wife was an MLC so they can get licences. If somebody is firing in their farmhouse, then what can the licensing authority do about it?”

However, he adds that the “law is there and his whole family is now in jail”.

Raju Singh fled with his driver and was apprehended in Uttar Pradesh. Both have been charged under IPC Section 302 (murder) which is punishable with a maximum term of life imprisonment or death, and under the Arms Act. Raju Singh’s wife Renu, a former member of the Bihar legislative council, has been arrested for ensuring that the bloodstains were cleaned and the rounds hidden at the scene of the crime. Another man, Raminder, who worked for them, has also been arrested for tampering of evidence and trying to threaten witnesses.

According to one report, two DJs at the farmhouse told officers that the main accused continued drinking for an hour after the murder. 

There have been other instances of people being killed during celebratory shooting. In February 2018, 21-year-old Deepak Kumar was killed as he rode a horse in his own wedding ceremony in Seemanpuri area of Delhi. Someone in the wedding party opened fire. In May 2018, a man become the victim of a stray bullet as he celebrated the birth of his twin nephews in Delhi’s Bawana.

Guns in my city

To know the scale of just how many guns are in Delhi and its neighbourhood, we turned to Lok Sabha records. According to answers by the Minister of State for Home Affairs Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, a total of 35,87,016 arms licenses are registered on the National Database of Arms Licence – Arms Licence Issuance (NDAL-ALIS) portal up to December 4, 2018.

According to the database, 4,57,489 new arms licences were issued and revalidated during the last three years.

In Delhi, the number of applications entered in NDAL with a Unique Identification Number (UIN) was 38,969. ALIS had 1,651 applications entered with UIN, bringing the total to 40,620.

The numbers in Haryana were 1,45,690 and 6,474, respectively, totaling 1,52,164. Uttar Pradesh tops the states—12,72,896 applications entered in NDAL with UINs and 15,563 applications with UIN in ALIS with UIN 15,563. The total is a whopping 12,88,459. The total in Bihar is 80,858.

These numbers show just how many guns there are in our neighbourhoods. 

What the law says

Can gun-holders apply for all-India validity?

The District Magistrate may grant all-India validity only to these categories:  

– Union ministers or MPs

– personnel of Defence Forces and Central Armed Police Forces

– officers of All India Services

– officers in the government or government sector undertakings or public sector undertakings with liability to serve anywhere in India

– dedicated sportspersons

In other cases, the powers to grant all-India validity are with the state government, which will decide on the application forwarded by the concerned District Magistrate.

Who gets a licence?

The obligations of the licensing authorities for grant of licences for permissible category of arms and ammunition have been brought in Rule 20(3) of the Arms Rules, 2016, namely:

“For grant of a licence for the permissible arms or ammunition specified in category III in Schedule I, and without prejudice to the provisions contained in clause (a) of subsection (3) of section 13, the licensing authority, based on the police report and on his own assessment, may consider the applications of:

(a) any person who by the very nature of his business, profession, job or otherwise has genuine requirement to protect his life and/or property; or

(b) any dedicated sports person being active member for the last two years, of a shooting club or a rifle association, licensed under these rules and who wants to pursue sport shooting for target practice in a structured learning process; or

(c) any person in service or having served in the Defence Forces, Central Armed Police Forces or the State Police Force and has genuine requirement to protect his life and/or property.”

This piece was first published in Patriot.