Six held in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar for selling country-made pistols brought from Madhya Pradesh

CIDCO police in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar have busted a gang that sold country-made pistols. The gang brought the pistols from Madhya Pradesh and sold them in the city for Rs 38,000 to Rs 50,000. Police raided several places in a single night and arrested six people.

According to police, four pistols and 11 live cartridges were seized from the accused. The seized items are valued at Rs 2.22 lakh. The inquiry into how many pistols the gang had sold earlier is still on.

The arrested accused are Shiva Ambadas Sure (25, Surewadi), Sumeet Sunil Vispute (Surewadi), Satyam Bhaskar Chate (23, Mayur Park), Arjun Kishor Lingayat (Navjeevan Colony), Shrikant Satish Shikhare (24, Mayur Park) and Vishal Raju Bhosale (24, ST Colony). A court has sent all of them to four days in police custody. Deputy Commissioner of Police Ratnakar Navale gave the information.

The case came to light when police received a tip that a youth was moving around Surewadi with a pistol and two cartridges. A team led by Senior Police Inspector Atul Yerme and Sub-Inspector Anil Nanekar laid a trap and caught Shiva Sure. He told them he had kept the pistol at the house of his friend Sumeet Vispute. Police recovered the pistol and two cartridges from there.

Questioning revealed that the pistol had been bought from Satyam Chate and Arjun Lingayat. Another pistol was found on Satyam. Arjun had hidden two pistols under a tree in the Mondha area of Jadhavwadi, and police recovered those as well.

Questioning of Satyam and Arjun revealed that the cartridges had been kept with Shrikant Shikhare and Vishal Bhosale. Nine more live cartridges were recovered from the two. In all, police recovered four pistols and 11 cartridges.

The gang's method was to hide the pistols and cartridges in different places to avoid arrest. Those who hid the weapons and cartridges were paid. A few days earlier, Satyam and Arjun had sold Shiva Sure one pistol and two cartridges.

The educational background of the accused has also emerged. Shiva Sure, Arjun Lingayat and Shrikant Shikhare have done BCS. Sumeet Vispute studied BSc Informatics and Satyam Chate studied BCom. Shiva is a contractor, while the other accused hold private jobs. Cases are registered against Shrikant at the CIDCO, Jinsi and Mumbai's Vikhroli police stations. Shiva and Vishal have one case each at CIDCO police station.

Deputy Commissioner Navale has ordered that it be established how many pistols have been sold in the city so far. A reward of Rs 1 lakh has been announced for the team that carried out the action. The team included CIDCO police station Inspector Atul Yerme, Crime Detection Squad Sub-Inspector Anil Nanekar, and constables Mangesh Pawar, Sahadev Sable, Amol Ambhore, Naresh Bhonde and Atul Solunke.