Pimpri Chinchwad Police Crime Branch busts inter-state gang of firearms smugglers
Mubarak Ansari
Pimpri, 16 July 2020: A team of Pimpri-Chinchwad Police Crime Branch Unit-4 succeeded in exposing an inter-state gang of 26 accused from Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Maharashtra who were smuggling illegal firearms. Police have seized 42 country-made pistols and 66 live cartridges and a car, totally worth Rs 19.89 lakhs from their possession. The accused persons have sold more than 75 pistols in Maharashtra, police said.
Acting on a tip-off received by Police Naik Laxman Adhari of Crime Branch Unit 4, police had arrested Ganesh Mali of Sangvi in March. He had purchased the firearms from Gyanoba alias Gotu Maruti Gite of Parli in Beed district. Police had arrested Gite also and had recovered six pistols and 15 cartridges from his possession. Gite had told police that he had procured the weapons from a ‘Sardar’ in Madhya Pradesh. A team had gone to MP but could not find him then. Later due to Coronavirus pandemic and lockdown, the investigation had come to a standstill.
However, a team led by Senior Police Inspector Mohan Shinde, Assistant Police Inspector Ambrish Deshmukh and constable Prashant Said continued to analyse call details of the accused persons. A team was again sent to MP which stayed there in disguise and got to know about the modus operandi of the gang.
Under the supervision of Crime Branch DCP Sudhir Hiremath, ACP Rajaram Patil, an action plan was prepared and a team was again dispatched to nab the gang leader Bhatia. After two days of cat and mouse game, cops finally caught Bhatia from Singhana village in Dhar district and recovered 11 country pistols and 22 live cartridges. Investigation revealed that he was the main supplier of firearms to gangs in Pune, Solapur, Osmanabad and Beed districts.
Accused persons: Ganesh Mali of Sangvi, Gyanoba alias Gotu Maruti Gite of Parli in Beed district, Manisingh Gurmukh Singh Bhatia, Kalusingh Jaswant Singh, both from Singhana in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh, Kush Nandkumar Pawar of Talegaon Dabhade, Prasanna Dnyaneshwar Pawar of Godumbre in Shirgaon, Akash alias Bala Jagannath Waghmode of Kurduwadi in Solapur district, Yogesh Vitthal Kamble of Paranda in Osmanabad, Siraj Salim Sheikh (34), Prakash alias Pappu Kisan Mandekar (27), both residents of Ambethan in Khed taluka, have been arrested from various places. These accused further sold weapons to criminals in various places in Maharashtra. Till now police have identified 26 accused and have arrested 15 of them.
Police team: The action was taken under the guidance of Pimpri Chinchwad Police Commissioner Sandeep Bishnoi, Additional Commissioner of Police Ramnath Pokale, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Sudhir Hiremath, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Rajaram Patil, by a team comprising Crime Branch Unit 4 Senior Police Inspector Mohan Shinde, Assistant Police Inspector Ambrish Deshmukh and Head Constables Pravin Dale, Narayan Jadhav, Sanjay Gaware, Dharmaraj Awate, Dadabhau Pawar, Adinath Misal, Police Naik Santosh Aswale, Tushar Shete, Laxman Adhari, Mohammad Gaus Nadaf, Vasudev Munde and Constables Shavarsiddha Pandhare, Prashant Said, Sunil Gutte, Tushar Kale, Suresh Jaybhaye, Ajinath Ombase, Dhanaji Shinde, Sukhdev Gawande, and Nagesh Mali, Rajendra Shete.
