Bio-tech student held with illegal firearm

Aurangabad: A 21-year-old bio-technology student has been arrested by Jalna police for possessing illegal

firearm

after he posted his photographs with the gun on social media.

The anti-dacoity squad of Jalna police on Monday laid a trap and seized the firearm after the suspect’s post went viral.

The accused has been identified as Rushikesh Raju Jaudkar, a resident of Shendra MIDC in Aurangabad. He was arrested while he was heading to Ujjainpuri village of Badnapur tehsil in Jalna district. An offence against the suspect and his friend, who is yet to be arrested, has been registered at Badnapur police station.

Jalna superintendent of police S Chaitanya told TOI, “After the youth posted a picture on social media with the firearm, our team launched a manhunt for him.”

The officer also expressed serious concerns over a college youth getting caught with a firearm and pledged to reach to the roots of the matter.

Anti-dacoity squad inspector Yashwant Jadhav said, “The seized firearm is

country-made

, but it appears to be a finished product prepared by a highly skilled professional.”

He added that such high quality country-made firearms are very rare even in the criminal circles, making it more important for the police to unearth its source.

During preliminary probe, Rushikesh claimed that the firearm belongs to one of his friends. “Soon after learning about Rushikesh’s arrest, the key suspect went into hiding,” a police officer said.

Sources informed that Rushikesh wanted to boast about possessing a firearm and clicked some pictures with the gun. “Without realising the repercussions he shared the photographs on the social media. These pictures soon went viral and taking serious cognizance of this we fanned out teams to identify the suspect and arrest them.”