This story is from October 1, 2019

Three 'AK-47s', 4 guns, drugs worth Rs 13cr seized in Palghar

Three 'AK-47s', 4 guns, drugs worth Rs 13cr seized in Palghar
The AK-47-like assault rifles were to be sold for Rs 1 lakh each, said police.
MUMBAI: Three automatic AK-47-like weapons, four handguns and narcotics, all worth over Rs 13 crore, were seized and two men arrested in Palghar on Sunday evening.
Coming less than a month before Maharashtra votes, it triggered speculation, but Palghar police superintendent Gaurav Singh said the seizures were not linked to the election. The men were trying to sell for personal gain.
On Monday evening, a Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad team landed in Palghar and questioned the accused.
The weapons will be sent to the forensic science laboratory for ballistic analysis to establish if they have been used before.
The rare seizure of AK-47-like assault rifles has got the police on their toes. "They were not manufactured in any ordnance factory. These were illegally manufactured and brought here to sell," said a police officer, adding that duplication of such sophisticated weapons has earlier been reported from Munger in Bihar.
"The AK-47s were to be sold for Rs 1 lakh each," said another officer. Singh said each magazine had a capacity of 30 bullets. "It looks like AK-47 and can be taken apart," he added.
Acting on a tip-off, the Manor police along with the Palghar local crime branch had laid a trap near Hindustan Dhaba on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway at Manor at around 5.55 pm on Sunday. The team intercepted the two men in an SUV near Chillar Phata. "They were carrying two gunny bags containing arms and narcotics," said API Pratap Darade of Manor police. Besides firearms, the police also recovered 63 live cartridges.

The seized narcotics include nine kg ephedrine powder, nine kg dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a drug that, if abused, can reportedly cause permanent psychosis, four kg 'Dodo' (a combination drug of diclofenac and paracetamol) and 500g brown sugar. Cash and cellphones were also recovered.
The police said an inter-state gang is under probe. The two arrested, remanded in police custody till October 10, have been booked under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, Arms Act and Maharashtra Police Act. Around five suspects are wanted. "It would be too early to say much about this gang. We are interrogating the accused," said Niket Kaushik, IGP, Konkan range.
End of Article
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA