Pune Police Busts Gun Smuggling Racket, Recovers 7 Pistols With Madhya Pradesh Connection
Reported by Mubarak Ansari
Pune, 19th January 2025: In a crackdown on rising criminal activities in the city, the officials from Pune Police Crime Branch Units 2, 3 and Sinhgad Road police station has seized seven illegal pistols and live cartridges from various locations across Pune. The operation led to the arrest of nine individuals, who had procured these weapons for purposes ranging from personal protection in land disputes to establishing dominance.
The investigation has revealed a Madhya Pradesh connection to the source of these firearms. The pistols, purchased at significantly low prices from villages along the Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh border, were later sold in Pune for lakhs of rupees.
“These pistols are being sourced from villages near the Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh border, where firearms are easily available,” said Nikhil Pingle, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Crime Branch. “Criminals prefer these locations due to their proximity to Pune and other major cities, enabling them to smuggle weapons into urban areas at a high profit margin.”
One of the arrested individuals, identified as Sagar Dhebe, has a history of serious criminal offences and has been booked in multiple cases across various police stations in Pune. The police suspect that Dhebe, along with others, was involved in the smuggling of these firearms.
Further investigations have revealed that some of the pistols seized were linked to the murder of Sharad Mohol and were reportedly used to assert dominance in Kothrud. The police are also probing how much the accused sold these firearms for, despite their combined estimated value being ₹2.86 lakh.
“While we have arrested nine individuals, we are continuing our investigation to identify the entire network involved in the trafficking and distribution of these illegal weapons,” added DCP Pingle.
