KOLHAPUR: Ichalkaranji police have arrested two persons, including a criminal on police record, for alleged possession of firearms.
Police have also seized two country-made pistols and three live rounds from them. They suspect that there are chances of recovering more such weapons from them. An official said that they will continue action against those possessing firearms illegally with the Ganesh festival scheduled next month.
The arrested have been identified as D K alias Dwarkadhish Jaynarayan Khandelwal (26), a resident of Bhonemal in Ichalkaranji and Pratik Suhas Sarnaik (25), a resident of R K Nagar, Pachgaon in the Karveer taluka.
"We got a tip-off that Khandelwal possessed a pistol and was in the Ichalkaranji's market area. We set a trap and nabbed him and Sarnaik when they were at the old bus stand area in Ichalkaranji. We found that both Khandelwal and Sarnaik had one pistol each on him. We also found three live rounds with Khandelwal. We seized all firearms, which were found to be country made," an Ichalkaranji police officer said.
The officer added that they were investigating as to where the duo procured weapons and the route that was taken to reach these weapons. "Khandelwal is on police record and has been booked in several police stations for criminal activities like robbery and violence," he said.
The issue of illegal firearms surfaced in Kolhapur in 2013 when the police arrested Manish Nagori, an Ichalkaranji resident. Nagori had then confessed of involvement in the illegal trade of firearms.
He had stated that he used to buy these weapons from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Nagori had sold 17 country-made pistols in the district. Police later nabbed 20 people and seized equal amounts of firearms from them that they had bought from Nagori.
Later, the matter came up again at the time of the attack on rationalist leader Narendra Dabholkar by unidentified men in Pune and rationalist leader Govind Pansare in Kolhapur. Between January 2015 and April 2016 the Kolhapur Range police have seized 103 illegal firearms and 321 cartridges. In all, 130 persons were booked under the Arms Act, 1959.
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