Pune: Over 1,000 bullets, 56 of use, seized from scrap vendor

PUNE: A scrap vendor from Guruwar Peth was arrested after a crime branch team from the Pune police recovered 1,105 bullets, some that were live and could be used, some outdated that had expired and were of no use and bullet leads, during Operation All Out, a combing operation carried out from Saturday night to early Sunday in the view of an impending VVIP visit to the city.
The seized material was worth Rs1.57 lakh. Other police teams checked as many as 3,504 criminals on police records, during the operation planned by police commissioner Amitabh Gupta and joint police commissioner Sandeep Karnik.
A team comprising inspector Sandeep Bhosale and sub-inspector Sanjay Gaikwad of the crime branch received information about the storage of bullets in the scrap yard.
Police raided the yard and found 56 live bullets, 79 outdated bullets and 970 bullet leads. Police then arrested the scrap yard owner Dineshkumar Kallusingh Saroj (34) of Janata Vasahat and registered a case against him with the Khadak police station.
Gaikwad told TOI, "Saroj was produced before a city court on Sunday and the court remanded him in police custody till June 15."
Police are probing how Saroj got the bullets and why he had kept them in the scrap yard instead of them. Saroj told the police that the bullets were stored by the previous owner of the yard and he had never paid any attention to them. Police said they did not believe him.
Other police teams seized eight sharp weapons from criminals on police records. All the teams checked 3,504 criminals involved in body offences, Arms Act violation and other serious offences.