Mira Bhayandar: With the arrest of eight people including arm suppliers and buyers, the crime branch unit (zone II) attached to the Mira Bhayandar-Vasai Virar (MBVV) police claim to have busted an inter-state arms supply cartel.
Acting on a tip-off, a team led by police inspector-Shahuraj Ranaware under the supervision of commissioner- Madhukar Pandey laid a trap at an abandoned construction site opposite Sunteck City in Vasai on 23, July and apprehended a person identified as-Moin Syed alias Jalebi (30) who was found to be in possession of a country made pistol and three live cartridges.
An offence under the relevant sections of the Arms Act and Maharashtra Police Act was registered at the Vasai police station against Jalebi who turned out to be a member of a well-oiled cartel of arm suppliers.
Following leads provided by Jalebi during the interrogation process, the police relentlessly followed up on the case for three months and busted an entire chain of weapon suppliers and buyers by arresting seven more seven more people from Palghar, Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.
The other accused have been identified as- Javed Iqbal Khan (30), Shahrukh Yusuf Khan alias Mohd. Arif (29), Ankit Nishad alias Patel (19), Amitkumar Mahajan Nishad (24), Amit Vijay Nishad (24), Aleem Khan alias Aalam (28) and Deva Prajapati (28). The police recovered 8 more pistols, 18 live cartridges and five mobile phones collectively worth more than Rs. 3.83 lakh.
Notably, all the accused were found to be working as- mechanics, welder, farmer and delivery man. The police are conducting verifications to ascertain if the accused have any criminal background and the reason behind them possessing the firearms. Not ruling out more arrests in the case, the MBVV police are conducting further investigations.
