The Malwani Police arrested a 28-year-old man on Sunday for possessing banned firearms, including a pistol and live cartridges. However, what left the police baffled was the arrested man’s narrative of “not owning” a mobile phone and yet managing to run a racket of firearms.
As per a tip-off received by the police, the accused, Mohammad Javed Khan alias Kesto, was roaming around in the NCC Malwani Colony area with a pistol tucked into the back of his pants. A police team was deployed to nab him. Frisking revealed a country-made pistol and two live cartridges. He was arrested and taken in for questioning.
After lodging a case for illegal possession of arms, the police interrogated him. It turned out that Kesto has almost 16 criminal cases against him, including robbery, at Malwani, Bangur Nagar, Malad and Meghwadi police stations. But what surprised the cops is that he doesn’t own a mobile phone and yet runs the business of firearms. They searched his and his parents’ houses but couldn’t find anything.
A police officer said, “He has several dealers who he coordinated with from jail but we are not sure who these dealers are.” He added that in cases like this, through technical investigation, they usually spot 'frequent callers' using call data records or mobile location, which is impossible in this case.
Police sources confirmed that he carried a pistol to merely threaten people into compliance. Kesto’s family said they had no idea about his activities even though he stayed two houses away.
He was later produced in court and was remanded to police custody for three days for further investigation.
(To receive our E-paper on WhatsApp daily, please click here. To receive it on Telegram, please click here. We permit sharing of the paper's PDF on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.)