Aide of Buxar’s notorious criminal held with arms

PATNA: Police arrested one Rajesh Srivastava (25) during a vehicle checking drive and recovered three country-made semi-automatic pistols, six magazines and two live cartridges from his possession near Income-Tax roundabout under the Kotwali police station area in the city on Monday night.
ASP (operation) Anil Kumar Singh said the arrested man is a close associate of Buxar’s notorious criminal Sandeep Yadav, who is accused in 20 cases and currently lodged in Bhagalpur central jail.

“Srivastava was travelling in a three-wheeler which was intercepted by the police at the roundabout. The arms and ammunition were recovered from the backpack of Srivastava,” he said, adding the arrested man was immediately taken to Kotwali police station.

“During interrogation, Srivastava told police that he was acting on the directives of Yadav and they had gathered the ammunition to kill someone in Buxar,” the ASP said, adding Srivastava had reached Patna in a train from Munger. He was supposed to go to Buxar. “However, after failing to catch a train, Srivastava changed his plans and decided to stay at Patliputra Colony here for a night,” the ASP said.

He added Srivastava had collected the arms and ammunition from an arms smuggler at Munger by paying him Rs 60,000 on Monday.

“The delivery was made at Jamalpur station from where Srivastava reached Patna. Police are trying to ascertain the identity of the smuggler from whom Srivastava had purchased the arms,” he said, adding the accused told police that he was a resident of Nayi Bazaar locality in Buxar.

Prison sources said Yadav was shifted to high-security Bhagalpur central jail from Buxar on April 12 last year as he was creating law and order problem at the Buxar central jail.