As the administration gears up for peaceful Ramnavmi procession on Saturday, police here arrested six people and seized as many firearms from different parts of the city in the past 24 hours.
Four of the arrested persons belonged to a criminal gang that had fired at a Sakchi-based businessman Aslam Churiwala at Sakchi Mohammedan line on April 5 whereas the two remaining accused were caught with fire-arms separately.
Those arrested in connection with the firing on Churiwala were identified as Md Gulrez (19), Md Asraf (20), Md Waris (20), all residents of Mango and Md Zafir, a resident of Sakchi. The remaining two accused were Vivek Singh (27), a resident of Jawaharnagar in Mango and Md Ramzan (24), a resident of Azadnagar in Mango.
Addressing the newsmen, senior SP, Anoop T Mathew said that acting on a tip off today morning that Waris, who was one of the accused in a firing incident at Mohammedan line at Sakchi on April 5, was standing at Sakchi.
"As we got the tip off the Sakchi police station OC, Anjani Kumar Tiwary formed a raiding party and nabbed Waris. On searching, the police recovered a loaded pistol from the possession of Waris. On being grilled, Waris divulged that the remaining three members of the gang, namely Gulrez, Asraf and Zafir were standing near Sitla Temple in Sakchi. The police team subsequently raided the place and nabbed the three," said Mathew.
He said that on searching, the police found one loaded pistol from each of the three. Apart from the pistol, the police also recovered a sports bike (JH-05-N0086) from the trio which had been used in the firing on Churiwala.
Talking to the newsmen, Mathew said that the four accused said that they had attacked Churiwala at Mohammedan line on the directives of Chhota Bacha who is presently lodged in Ghaghidih Central Jail.
"During probe he divulged that Chhota Bacha wanted to threaten Churiwala as the latter was a prosecution witness against him. But as Churiwala had already deposed before the court by defying the threat on his life, Bacha's hired men were this time hatching a plot to murder the businessman. Therefore they were waiting for a right opportunity today," said the senior SP.
Senior SP pointed out that keeping in view the threat on Churiwala's life they had provided an armed body guard to the businessman, but the criminals today wanted to kill him, but due to timely action by the police all the four were arrested.
In another incident, the police got a tip off that Vivek Singh had a sophisticated pistol at home. On getting the information, a police team led by Mango inspector Fulan Nath raided his house and recovered a .9 MM loaded pistol which he had kept under the bed.