Palande booked under Arms Act

“A police team found 12 rounds of 9mm bullets stored in a duct in the flat. These belonged to Vijay Palande,who did not have a licence for keeping a firearm of ammunition. A case was subsequently registered. Palande has been booked under the Arms Act,” said a senior Mumbai Police Crime Branch officer. During the Crime Branch’s investigations so far,however,no firearm has been seized from Palande.

“We will interrogate Palande on why the rounds were stored by him in his flat,and whether he was in possession of a gun. We will also investigate where he sourced the 9mm rounds from,” said the officer.

The Crime Branch had earlier said that besides the two murder cases he is accused of,Palande was likely to be booked for irregularities in the manner which he procured his current passport.

Palande had allegedly obtained a genuine passport through fraudulent means and the Crime Branch said it was approaching passport officials for the records concerned.

The Crime Branch said the passport held by Palande is under his real name and was issued from Delhi in 2008. It was allegedly obtained through fraudulent means by providing incorrect information. The address provided by Palande is in an area called Krishna Nagar in Delhi,they said.