A police team started looking into the various leads and it zeroed in on a group of arms dealers operating from Dhar district in Madhya Pradesh. (Representational Image)

In a three-month-long operation, which even involved police personnel posing as criminals to purchase weapons, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Police has unearthed a major firearm smuggling racket that operated in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Police have seized 42 country-made firearms and arrested 15 persons in connection with the racket.

The probe started with an offence registered in March in Pimpri-Chinchwad, in which six country-made firearms and 15 live rounds were seized. A police team started looking into the various leads and it zeroed in on a group of arms dealers operating from Dhar district in Madhya Pradesh.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Sudheer Hiremath said, “Our teams worked on various aspects of the case over the last three months. Multiple suspects who are part of the smuggling racket were identified and arrested… in one of the high-risk operations, a team posed as criminals interested in purchase of arms to reach the kingpins at a place in Dhar district. The extensive probe has revealed that people who were part of the smuggling racket used to bring weapons and ammunition on a regular basis from Madhya Pradesh for sale in various places in Maharashtra, including Pune.”

Police have till now tracked the smuggling and sale of as many as 75 firearms into Maharashtra as part of the racket, of which 42 have been seized by investigating teams. Till now, 15 persons, including some with a criminal record who were part of the racket, have been arrested, including one of the alleged kingpins, Manisingh Gurumukhsingh Bhatiya, from Singhana in Dhar district.

Police have also identified some of the people who purchased the illegal firearms. Officials said the three-month-long operation involved a large team of Pimpri-Chinchwad police personnel and was monitored by top officials.