Police said search is on for one more accused in the case. The Pune City Police’s Crime Branch has arrested a gang of four persons and recovered as many as eight pistols and 15 live cartridges from their possession.
Police have identified the accused as Bhushan Mahesh Marathe (23), Rahul Chandrakant Pawar (26), Taufik Gulab Shaikh (25) and Ram Moroba Jadhav (35).
Acting on a tip-off to policeman Sachin Ahiwale, a Crime Branch team led by Senior Inspector Balaji Pandhare recently arrested accused Marathe in Pune railway station area. Police said Marathe had come from Jalgaon to sell firearms in Pune. During searches, police recovered three pistols and six live cartridges from his possession. Probe revealed that he had sold a few pistols to some criminals in Pune city.
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Two country-made pistols and four cartridges were recovered from accused Pawar, two guns and three cartridges from Shaikh and one pistol and two cartridges from Jadhav.
Police said both Pawar and Jadhav have a criminal record. It is suspected that Marathe procured the firearms from his contacts in Madhya Pradesh and sold it to criminals in Pune and other places. Police said search is on for one more accused in the case.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (crime) Shrinivas Ghadge said an offence in this case has been lodged at the Bundgarden police station under sections of the Arms Act and further investigation is on.