Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar : City police on Saturday arrested six youths, most of them students, and seized four country-made pistols and 11 live rounds worth Rs 2.2 lakh. Preliminary investigations indicate the group sourced the weapons from Madhya Pradesh and was selling them in the city.
Those arrested have been identified as Shiva Sure (25), Sumeet Vispute, Satyam Chate (23), Arjun Lingayat (20), Shrikant Shikhare (24) and Vishal Bhosale (24). Because several of the accused are college students, police described the case as alarming.
“The biggest concern is that the accused are students pursuing professional courses and were found to be in touch with illegal firearm suppliers from Madhya Pradesh and selling them in the city,” said commissioner of police Pravin Pawar. The breakthrough came after a team led by sub-inspector Anil Nanekar received information that Sure was carrying a pistol near Surewadi in Jadhavwadi, according to police. During questioning, Sure allegedly told police that a firearm had been kept at Vispute’s house. Chate then told police that Lingayat had hidden two more pistols in Jadhavwadi.
An FIR has been registered at Cidco police station. A search of the premises led to the seizure of a pistol and two live rounds. Police later detained Chate and allegedly recovered another pistol from him. Acting on the information, police recovered the weapons. Further questioning led them to Shikhare and Bhosale, who were allegedly found in possession of live rounds.
The six were produced before a court on Saturday and remanded to four days of police custody.
DCP (Zone-II) Ratnakar Navale said the investigation then widened. “During questioning, Sure said the pistol had been kept at the Surewadi home of his friend Vispute. Sure then said he had got the weapon from Chate and Lingayat,” Navale said.
The police searched the house and recovered an iron pistol and two rounds from a room.