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110 guns found in Indian
American’s house
WSN Network
 Washington:
A Punjab-origin Indian American doctor has been arrested after
authorities found machine guns and grenades worth more than $1
million in and around his home in a small town in Arkansas.
Dr Randeep Mann,
50, will remain in custody pending his trial, US Magistrate H. David
Young ordered Tuesday Young said he was unconvinced .
Mann would stay
in the country if released on bond.
Mann, a
specialist in internal medicine described as a graduate of the Armed
Forces Medical College in Pune in a listing on the website
wellness.com, is a naturalised U.S. citizen. He lives in London,
about 80 miles from state capital Little Rock.
After city
workers uncovered a canister of 98 grenades near Mann’s property
last week, federal agents searched his home and found 110 machine
guns and grenades designed to be launched from military rifles.
Authorities said Mann has a permit to sell registered machine guns,
but at least four of the guns found in his home were not registered
in his name. Prosecutors had argued that the doctor’s frequent
travels outside the country and family ties in India made him a
flight risk.
But his wife,
Sangeeta Mann, testified that her husband rarely left the country
and that her in-laws visited once a year for six months. Prosecutors
had claimed that Mann left the country 121 times since March 2007,
which Hendrix said would be difficult for a practising doctor. While
prosecutors said Mann’s father, Kuldip Mann, worked as an arms
dealer, Sangeeta Mann said her father-in-law spends most of his time
in a wheelchair.
Mann was
interviewed by police on February 4, the day a homemade bomb injured
a doctor who chairs the state medical board, which had disciplined
Mann.
18
March 2009
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