Bengaluru: Anekal police have arrested seven persons on charges of dealing in illegal country-made pistols and seized five pistols and 10 live bullets from them.The accused are Manoj alias Jackie, Pradeep Ramesh Mesharam, Rizwan Pasha, Shivaraj, Nanjappa, Venkataraju alias Raju, and Gopi alias Sunavara Gopi. Mesharam is from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh while the others are from different parts of Bengaluru.Police records show that Mesharam was arrested by Mumbai police a few years ago for carrying country-made pistols. The racket was exposed last month when cops on night duty spotted Pradeep suspiciously loitering near Haldenahalli railway gate in Anekal and seized three country-made pistols from him. Further investigation led to the arrests of the other suspects, sources said.The accused have been booked under the Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act (KCOCA), making it difficult for them to obtain bail. According to the rules, KCOCA can be invoked against members of a gang with past criminal records who come together to execute another criminal act. Manoj alias Jackie has 23 criminal cases, including five murder cases, while Rizwan has 21 with four murder cases against him.Police investigation revealed that the accused were purchasing the pistols from a man in Madhya Pradesh, identified as Dawood, for around Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 and selling them here for Rs 50,000 and above.“In all, the gang dealt in seven pistols in the past. Normally, Pradeep comes to the city by train and brings the pistols. Two such pistols were used by Rizwan and Manoj. The gang wanted to sell the remaining ones,” a source said.When asked who the other potential buyers for the remaining three pistols were, a senior police officer said they were scanning the call detail records of all the accused to find out who all were in touch with them.
