GURUGRAM: The main accused in the fake arms licence scam was arrested by the Gurgaon police in Mohali, Punjab, on Friday evening. The police said he was on his way to the airport in a bid to flee the country when he was caught.Manish Bhardwaj alias Kala (35), a resident of Gurgaon village, was brought to the city on Saturday and produced before a local court, which remanded him in police custody for 10 days. The police said Kala had told them that he was involved in counterfeiting licences for more than four years.A police source said that some years ago, Delhi Police had called Bhardwaj for questioning in connection with the sale of illegal arms but let him off later."Some years ago, a consignment of illegal foreign weapons was seized in Khurja, UP. The accused, who had also bought weapons from the same place, was called for questioning by Delhi Police but later let off. He would provide fake licences and convince customers to buy foreign arms from him as he guaranteed to enrol the weapon on his licence," a senior police officer said.Bhardwaj was on the run since February 11, a day after special investigation joint commissioner of police Sibas Kabiraj unearthed a scam pertaining to issuing of fake arms licences in Gurgaon in connivance with staff of the joint commissioner's office and agents and departments of other states, who issued NOCs. An FIR was registered against Kala and one of his accomplices, Mohan Lal, at the Civil Lines police station. Later Lal was arrested.Police commissioner Sandeep Khirwar formed a special investigation team (SIT) led by ACP (Sadar) Anil Yadav, to probe the matter. Meanwhile, the police, who were auditing the number of arms licences in the district in the last six years, had also marked 693 arms licences which were re-registered in that period.On Friday evening, the team got a tip-off about Bhardwaj fleeing Mohali and going abroad. The SIT nabbed him near Chandigarh airport around 6.30pm. "The accused had been on the run since February 11 and was hiding in Patiala and Chandigarh. We nabbed him near Chandigarh airport but it is not clear whether he was trying to flee the country. More details of the scam will merge after we interrogate him," ACP Yadav said.

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