Mumbai: The crime branch’s anti-extortion cell on Friday arrested three Punjab residents, who allegedly came to the city to sell three foreign-made firearms and live cartridges. Two of them are wanted in a 2022 Patiala murder case and the third faces 19 criminal cases. Police are ascertaining if they had any connection with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.
Following a tipoff that some persons were preparing to sell firearms without licence, a police team laid a trap near St George’s Hospital in Fort. It caught Sukhvindar Chandrapal (24), Jasanpreet Mangal Singh (24) and Arbaz Chaudhary (34), and seized three made in China pistols, magazines and 45 live cartridges from them. Each pistol is worth around Rs 3 lakh and the bullets Rs 100 each, said police. MRA Marg police lodged a case under Arms Act, which was then taken over by the anti-extortion cell.
The crime branch is looking into the Bishnoi angle since most of his gang members arrested in Mumbai in the past two years hailed from Punjab and UP.
Police said as per initial information, Chandrapal and Singh were involved in a case in Patiala where a youth was stabbed to death by several accused. While five accused had been arrested, these two had been on the run. Chaudhary is named in 19 cases, including attempted murder, extortion, kidnapping, rioting, assault and criminal intimidation. The crime branch will inform Punjab police about their arrests.
Mateen Hafeez, special correspondent at The Times of India in Mum...
Read MoreMateen Hafeez, special correspondent at The Times of India in Mumbai, reports on terrorism, underworld, cybercrime and organized crime syndicates. He also writes about the jails in Maharashtra and focuses on human interest stories. He has covered the Ghatkopar bomb blast, Vile Parle bomb blast, Mulund train blast, train serial blasts in 2006, 26/11 terror attacks and Pune's German Bakery bomb blast. He has a special interest in Urdu fiction written by Ibn-e-Safi.
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