3 min readMumbaiMay 13, 2014 03:44 AM IST
First published on: May 13, 2014 at 03:44 AM IST
The Mumbai police crime branch has traced the source of a cache of illegal arms recovered from a suspect last month to a village in Madhya Pradesh, where a group of arms manufacturers allegedly supplies weapons and ammunition of Maoists in MP.
On April 14 this year, the Crime Branch’s Unit I had arrested Dinesh Mansari (28), an MP native from near the General Post Office after he was found to be in possession of five pistols and 30 rounds of live ammunition. Unit I officers were patrolling the area when they spotted Mansari behaving in a suspicious manner and decided to search him.
“Mansari was standing in the same place for a long time and was looking worried, trying to avoid the eye of passersby. We approached him on suspicion and searched his bag, after which we found the arms and ammunition,” said an officer. Mansari was subsequently placed under arrest and charged under the Arms Act
The police then set about trying to trace the source as well the intended recipient of the arsenal.
Mansari, in his interrogation, told the police that he was supposed to reach Mumbai and wait for a call. However, due to a problem with his cellphone, he could not make contact with the man he was supposed to meet. The police then quizzed him about the source of the guns and bullets, and the results of his interrogation led the police to the Pachori village in the Burhanpur district in MP.
A team of crime branch officers then left for Pachori to look for the man who had given the arsenal to Mansari, identified only as Babloo.
“We reached Pachori and contacted the local police there, which was when we learned that a group of people in the village has been engaged in gun-making for years. Inquiries have also revealed that the Naxals in Madhya Pradesh are among the biggest clients of this group, and that guns and ammunition also go in small amounts to other places in Maharashtra as per demand,” said an officer.
Further investigations in Pachori revealed that the elusive Babloo had gone into hiding in the same forest area where Naxals in MP hide from the police. The dense forest and treacherous terrain discourages the police from going after them and Babloo, according to the police’s information, also sought shelter in the same forest.
The Crime Branch team subsequently returned to Mumbai and is now making renewed inquiries in the city in order to try and identify the intended recipient of the arms and ammunition.
mumbai.newsline@expressindia.com
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