THANE: A 23-year-old history sheeter from
Virar has been arrested and six
illegal pistols and 15
live cartridges were recovered from him.
The accused, Samen Shaikh was arrested by the anti-extortion cell sleuths based on a tip-off, said N T Kadam, the Assistant police commissioner.
Shaikh is a history-sheeter and has been earlier booked by
Kandivali police in a similar illegal fire arms case, he was convicted for a robbery at Ambernath and was lodged in the jail for around three-and-half years.
"Shaikh came out of jail on January 11 and again got into illegal business of supplying fire arms," said Pradip Sharma, the senior inspector.
Based on the information, that he will come to Kopri, the slueths led by inspector police RV Kothmire, Vilas Ghodke and the team laid a trap and intercepted the accused.
Upon frisking, the police found 0.32 bore six illegal fire arms of fine quality with 15 live cartridges.
"The pistols are manufactured on the border of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh's Banda village. He was supposed to deliver the firearms to someone but was trapped before that," said Kothmire.
Preliminary investigation revealed that he was supposedly paid Rs 20000 for the delivery.
The market rate of one pistol is Rs 1.25 lakhs to Rs 2 lakhs, which can vary according to the buyer or the customer in the illegal market.
