Mumbai Beat

Police had earlier arrested three collegians Vikrant Raut and Sachin and Siddarth Shinde from two city colleges and recovered a 9mm pistol, a service revolver and 47 live rounds from them. Though investigations have not yet revealed how many arms have been stolen from the armoury so far, a few hundred firearms, including shotguns, service revolvers and pistols, are rusting on the armoury8217;s racks because of the sheer lack of spare parts.

Some of the weapons are even lying in a partly dismantled state. However, sources at the Naigaon police armoury say that while some of the spares 8212; otherwise notavailable in the armoury8217;s inventory 8212; could be manufactured at any local machine shop, most police officers transferred to the arms section have little knowledge of weapons and their spares. This only adds to the problem. At times, the officers are busy attending to court cases and have little little time to inspect the inventory.

Special vigil against ISI

The Maharashtra police have geared up for the ensuing polls in the state, especially in wake of the Kargil conflict and the threat from the Inter-Services Intelligence ISI, chief electoral officer Dr D K Sankaran said. Adequate security arrangements have been made throughout the state, and additional deployment will be made during polls, he noted, adding that Maharashtra has an excellent track record of conducting free and fair polls.

Taking into consideration the post-Kargil scenario and activities of the ISI, the security concern is neither compromised nor downgraded. At the same time, we are committed to conduct free and fair polls inthe state, additional director general of police law and order S S Puri said. He said recently ISI agents have been nabbed in Mumbai and Pune.