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 a licence, a police team laid a trap near St George's Hospital in Fort. They 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 the 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 Uttar Pradesh. Police said that 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.
The arrested individuals were produced before a local court, which remanded them to police custody for further investigation. Authorities are also probing whether the weapons were intended for use in any criminal activity in Mumbai or elsewhere. The seizure of high-quality foreign-made pistols has raised concerns about the illegal arms trade in the city.
