The Trombay police have arrested two men for allegedly buying and selling illegal weapons.
The accused are identified as Chetan Sanjay Mali, 26, and Sinu Padgila, 48.
The matter first surfaced on January 13 when the police received a tip-off regarding an exchange of arms and weapons in their jurisdiction. To apprehend the accused, a trap was planted by the police and to lure him, a police officer pretended to be a customer and approached Mali.
Mali was called and asked to “sell” the arms to the police officer posing as a customer, at a hotel in Mankhurd – where he was arrested. Mali turned out to be a professional smuggler and supplier of illegal weapons. At the given time Mali had four pistols and eight live cartridges in his procession, which were seized by the police.
Mali, a resident of Kalyan, confessed to smuggling the weapons for his “customers” from an individual based out of Maharashtra, “as per demand”, said police officials.
He confessed about more pistols and live cartridges at his house in Kalyan where police reached and seized them for evidence. The second accused, Padgila, a resident of Borivali, had contacted Mali for weapons and bullets for “personal” use, the police said. They obtained Padgila’s information and location – from where he was placed under arrest.
Padgila had recently bought a pistol and two bullets from Mali, he confessed to the police.
A total of eight pistols and 15 live cartridges were recovered by the police, which are valued at around Rs 20 to Rs 25 lakh.
According to police sources, Mali smuggled huge numbers of arms from someone based outside the state. “We are finding out how he smuggled it to the state and the city frequently. There must be co-accused who helped him all these years,” said a source.
Mali’s other “customers” are currently being looked into by the police and they are trying to dig out his link to uncover his smuggling activity. Both the accused are currently in police custody.
