Pune police have arrested a homeless man for allegedly breaking into the muddemal room at the Bund Garden police station on Saturday. The suspect is accused of stealing seven pistols from the facility. Following the theft, he discarded the firearms on a footpath near the General Post Office (GPO). Authorities reviewed CCTV footage and successfully recovered all seven pistols shortly after the incident.
Further interrogation revealed that he had stolen six more pistols.
The firearms had been recovered by the crime branch two years ago and were kept in the muddemal room for safekeeping, according to the police. He went to the rear side of the muddemal room on the pretext of collecting garbage, according to the police. The Pune city police have ordered an inquiry into the incident. About eight months ago, the Bund Garden police station was shifted to a commercial building near Sadhu Vaswani Chowk. The muddemal room, however, is located in a dilapidated old bungalow near the Central Building and remains locked. The suspect, a native of Kalaburgi in Karnataka, moves around the city. After forcing open the door, he initially stole a few beer bottles. He then took seven pistols kept inside the room and carried them around in a bag as he roamed the area throughout the day. After receiving information about the theft, the police detained the suspect. During questioning, they found a pistol in his possession bearing the marking ‘BL’, which indicated that it had been seized by the police. However, the bag containing the firearms was not found at the spot. After examining CCTV footage, the police traced the bag to bushes near the GPO. All six pistols were recovered from inside the bag.