The Mumbai Police Crime Branch’s crackdown on illegal weapons being smuggled into the city, which was initiated last year, has resulted in the prevention of several major crimes, officials said. The Crime Branch has now intensified its drive against illegal arms in the city. In the beginning of 2014, the Crime Branch had identified key areas to focus on in order to control and prevent crime in the city. Illegal weapons and counterfeit currency were two of these key areas. The Crime Branch went on to seize more than 300 illegal weapons in 2014, arrested several accused for possession and supply of these weapons. What the drive also facilitated was the prevention of several crimes, some of which included murders. One such case was the arrest of 14 suspects who were plotting to murder a Bollywood producer-director, and were also responsible for the firing outside film producer Karim Morani’s residence last year. “The initial tip off that we got was simply that there was a group of men in Mumbai who had three pistols in their possession. The investigation began from there and we ended up seizing six pistols, 26 live rounds, solved one case and prevented a murder,” said a Crime Branch officer. Another officer said that two recent cases over the last two months, where murders and attacks on several builders and political figures in the Thane district were prevented were also results of tip offs about illegal arms being seen in the possession of the suspects. “Our informants, in both cases, told us that they had learned about the accused having recently acquired weapons. We then traced the accused, tracked their movements and picked them up. In both cases, we were able to unearth conspiracies to murder,” said another officer. All units of the Crime Branch have now been instructed to step up their efforts to find out about any illegal weapon in the city, and on finding one, to find out the reason behind it being smuggled into the city. Apart from prevention of crimes, the drive has also yielded knowledge about latest tactics and routes used in smuggling of arms, and the identities and details of some major illegal arms suppliers based in several states, said officials. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Detection) Dhananjay Kulkarni, when contacted, said, “We have been carrying out a sustained drive against illegal arms and it has yielded some good results. While some details of our cases can not be discussed, a lot of our recent cases where major crimes were prevented have been due to this drive.” gautam.mengle@expressindia.com
