BENGALURU: A gunrunner from Madhya Pradesh, in his late 30s, was arrested by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) on charges of illegally manufacturing and selling country-made pistols. The accused, Janjir alias Dinesh Patidar, is a resident of Singhana in Madhya Pradesh’s Dhar district. He was arrested after the CCB obtained an arrest warrant from a local court, Bengaluru Police Commissioner Seemanth Kumar Singh said. “Our CCB team, led by DCP Raja Imam Kasim, had been looking for him since March-April this year. In February, we arrested a city-based businessman who had procured an illegal pistol. The businessman confessed that he had purchased the pistol from a man in Madhya Pradesh with the help of two agents. A few days later, we managed to arrest the agents and seized two more country-made pistols from them. They confessed that the illegal pistols were manufactured and sold by the man from Madhya Pradesh,” Singh said. In mid-February, CCB officers arrested Syed Masood, 26, from Jayanagar after seizing a country-made pistol and 50 live rounds of ammunition from him. Masood wanted to marry a woman, but her family opposed the relationship. Fearing they might attack him, he allegedly decided to buy a country-made pistol illegally. On February 25, 19-year-old Javed Alam from Madhya Pradesh arrived at Yeshwanthapur railway station from Bhopal and met Masood at a pre-arranged location. Police arrested both Masood and Alam while the illegal pistol deal was taking place. Masood had paid Rs 45,000 in cash for the weapon. However, the CCB was initially unable to trace the source of the illegal firearms. “Through the agents, we discovered that it was Patidar who manufactured and sold the pistols. By then, Patidar realised that we were after him and went into hiding. We developed a local informant and asked him to keep us updated about Patidar’s movements. Recently, Patidar returned and resumed manufacturing pistols. With the help of court warrants, we raided his house and arrested him,” police said. Another senior police officer said Patidar’s house was being used as an illegal pistol manufacturing unit. “We have seized the materials used to manufacture pistols. Dhar police have now registered another criminal case against him for manufacturing and selling illegal firearms. We have also learnt that he was previously arrested on similar charges and that several court warrants were pending against him,” the investigating officer said.
