Ponda: Taking lead from first arrest on Monday, Ponda police on Tuesday managed to bust a gang dealing with country-made firearms in Borim and Shiroda area of Ponda taluka.

In four different raids, police arrested four people more and seized four front muzzle guns, 7 cartridges, 11 buds, 24 pipes and several other parts of firearms and hunting tools, worth Rs 1 lakh.

Names of arrested persons were disclosed as Vasudev Gaonkar (40), a resident of Chickengal-Shiroda; Vishwas Velip (53), a resident of Paz-Shiroda; Vinod Shirodkar (55), from Shiroda and Niraj Chari (41), from Borim.

According to Ponda police inspector Mohan Gaude, on Monday, police had arrested Polly Fernandes (52), a resident of Adianoll-Shiroda with a country-made firearm while he was out for hunting.  After thorough interrogation of Polly, police learned about illegal firearms business operating in Borim and Shiroda area. Accordingly, on Tuesday, police raided four spots in those areas and arrested four more persons involved in the illegal firearms business.

“These people were illegally manufacturing firearms, used mostly for hunting animals, and selling them illegally,” PI Mohan Gaude stated. All of them were caught red handed with illegal weapons and four different cases have been registered, he added.

PSIs Ajit Umaye, Yeshwant Mandrekar, Suraj Kankonkar, Aditya Velip, LPSI Rashmi Bhaidkar, head constables Kedartnath Jalmi, Samir Patil, Jitendra Gaude, police constables Hanumant Borkar, Sandeep Naik, Amey Gosavi, Vandesh Satarkar, Sainath Kopardekar, Siddhesh Gawas and Mahesh Gawade were a part of the raids conducted in different areas of Shrioda and Borim.

The offence has been registered against the alleged accused under sections 3 and 25 of Arms Act. Further investigation is under progress.