Inter-State gang selling guns busted, four held

Inter-State gang selling guns busted, four held
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
BELGAUM, NOV 20
Besides liquor and drugs, the illicit trade between Belgaum and Goa has now extended to firearms as well.
Belgaum police have arrested a Goan and three others from Belgaum district on charges of selling country-made pistols to people across the state border.
Five pistols, five magazines and eight live cartridges have been recovered from the arrested persons. Police suspects an interstate gang involved in this trade.
In an incident that has caused concern among the police forces of both states, Belgaum police on Saturday morning arrested Rajesh Vishram Naik (35) from Pernem and recovered two country made pistols and two live cartridges from him.
Giving details of the incident at a press conference, Superintendent of Police Sandeep Patil said Rajesh was arrested at Bachi village in Belgaum, about 12 kms from Belgaum near the Karnataka-Maharashtra border as he was set to sell the pistols to his clients.
Belgaum Rural Police PSI Dheeraj Shinde, under the guidance of SP Patil and CPI Vishwanath Kulkarni, arrested Rajesh on at around 6.30 am and recovered the pistols from him.
“After getting a tip off, the Begalum Rural Police team under guidance of SP Sandeep Patil swung into action. They made a fool proof plan to nab Rajesh,” CPI Kulkarni told Herald.
Police first obtained the cell number of Rajesh Naik and were in touch with him since last week under the guise of being the customers.
“Despite promising them that he would meet them, Rajesh  preferred to remain away. However, we did not give up and smartly pursued the matter of purchasing pistols from Rajesh and lured him with better amount,” CPI Kulkarni said.
“Ultimately, the meeting was fixed at Bachi, strategically located on Karantaka-Maharsthra border and Rajesh fell in the trap,” he added.
Rajesh, who is allegedly engaged in this trade for quite a few years, confessed to the police that he had obtained these pistols from a resident of West Bengal.
Rajesh has been remanded to judicial custody and has been sent to the Central Prison at Hindalga.
“This could be only the tip of the iceberg as we suspect a bigger nexus engaged in interstate illicit arms trade,” SP Patil said, adding that the police is confident of nabbing few more persons.
Meanwhile, questions are being raised on how Goa Police was unaware of such a trade that was busted by the Belgaum police.
Belgaum police suspects that a bigger interstate gang is operating from Goa in this trade.
Belgaum police have also nabbed three more persons in two different incidents of illegal trade of country made pistol.
One Kutbuddin Multani was arrested recently with two country made pistols and eight live cartridges by PSI Sunil Kumar and team of Yamkanmardi police station on the National Highway-4.
In another incident, the Ramdurg police team headed by PSI S V Sakhare have arrested Maruti Satyappa Umarani(37) and Mushappa Tapasi (36) and recovered one country made pistol and a motor cycle on which they were travelling. A case is registered at Ramdurg police station.
“Manufacturing of country made pistols that are available for about Rs 20,000, may be easy. But bullets recovered from the culprits can only be manufactured by arms and ammunition factories. This makes the matter more serious, as the nexus could be even bigger,” said SP Sandeep Patil.
He has expressed the need for a wider investigation in these cases.