Rajkot: Ahead of the Rath Yatra, a special law-and-order drive by the Rajkot prevention of crime branch (PCB) exposed an interstate gun running racket operating in Saurashtra for nearly two years. Police arrested five persons, including an alleged arms supplier from Madhya Pradesh and seized 16 country-made firearms, 30 cartridges and four phones, worth Rs 2.03 lakh.Police arrested Hakil Sadik Mansuri, a resident of Mirzapur in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh, when he came to deliver weapons near Wankaner. “Five illegal firearms and 20 live cartridges were recovered from him. Jaysukh alias Jeso Vaghela, who had allegedly come to collect the weapons, was also arrested,” said police inspector Mehul Gondaliya.According to the police, Mansuri allegedly admitted that he had earlier supplied weapons to three men from Chotila. Based on this, police arrested Anil Khetariya, Gavaskar alias Darshan Rojasara and Pradeep Karpada. Police said the itesm seized from the accused included 10 country-made pistols, five country-made kattas, one country-made revolver and 30 cartridges.Investigators said Mansuri had been routing illegal weapons to different districts of Saurashtra through Vaghela for the past two years. Vaghela has nine cases registered against him in Rajkot city, Jasdan, Chotila, Bhavnagar and Botad, including cases for violation of the Arms Act and prohibition laws and assault and attempted murder. Rojasara and Karpada also face cases under the Arms Act and prohibition laws.
