Palamu police today arrested five persons for possession of illegal arms here on Friday. SP, Palamu, Indrajeet Mahtha said that four juvenile offenders were detained and put to question and these four were all students of 12th class and come from different background and different families.
He said these four kept illicit arms a regular pistol in their houses too an offence that carries severe punishment under Arms Act. SP reiterated the J J Board will deal with them.
He went on telling media persons that these four joined the gang of five headed by Tan Tan Upadhaya of Paton police station in Palamu. Upadhyay, the SP said, is at the beck and call of a notorious gangster Sujit Sinha and Pradeep Tiwary now lodged in jail.
The SP admitted Sinha used to give orders to Tan Tan and his four other accomplices but when asked as to how a jailed inmate so passed on his order to his gang men outside, said that Sinha used to pass on order through the visitors going to jail for 'mulakaat'.
“The police will now scan the visitors and people meeting Sinha and Pradip Tiwary inside the jail,” said the SP answering a query.
Earlier it became a very embarrassing moment for Mahatha as his officials had messed up a press release meant for distribution among the news men here on Friday evening. The press release carried the names of the four juvenile offenders much against the code of juvenile justice board. It was SP himself who noticed the mistake and immediately took damage control measures before things related to juvenile offenders going the wrong way.
The moment Indrajeet Mahatha saw these names he asked cops there to take back the circulated press release from the two dozen journalists and then pushed towards Daltonganj police station where a fresh press release was prepared but SP Mahatha did not hide his anger and asked DSP P R Barwar to ensure more training to police officials here about J J Act and its provisions. He reiterated cops need further to be fine tuned in J J Act.