At least 19 firing incidents in Pune & Pimpri-Chinchwad this year
Pune city alone has witnessed 16 out of the 19 firing incidents with the police recovering the firearms used
Pune and neighbouring Pimpri-Chinchwad have together witnessed at least 19 incidents of firearms being used in broad daylight to carry out killings of criminals, including two in which policemen and criminals exchanged fire in 2023. While Pune city alone has witnessed 16 out of the 19 firing incidents with the police recovering the firearms used. Only three incidents of firing were reported in the Pimpri-Chinchwad Police Commissionerate (PCPC) area, and the PCPC police claimed to have seized 150 firearms this year as part of pre-emptive weapon recovery drives undertaken based on information available in the public domain.
In the latest firing incident, three assailants opened fire at a jeweller on B T Kawade Road, Wanawadi. The earlier firing incidents were reported at Chatuhshrungi (two incidents), Khadak, Sinhagad, Lohegaon, Wagholi, Hadapsar, Chakan, Swargate (two incidents), Warje, Khadakwasla, and Market Yard. At around 2 am on October 31, Anil Ramdev Sahu, a native of Darbhanga district, Bihar, died after being shot in the forehead at point blank range by a lone assailant. The police later arrested three criminals on record in connection with the incident. The same evening, a youth on police record, 19, was shot dead by two juveniles at Raikar Nagar, Dhayari, Sinhagad Road. Earlier on October 24, a delivery boy visiting Ozone Villas Society, Lohegaon Road, Wagholi, was beaten up and fired at with a pistol by Chetan Vasant Padwal, 27, a resident of the same society. The Lonikand police later arrested Padwal for attempted culpable homicide. On July 5, the Pune crime branch team opened fire at a group of men who were planning to steal money from a State Bank of India (SBI) ATM at Warje Malwadi and arrested five of them. In the PCPC area, Kishor Aware, founder of the Jan Seva Vikas Samiti and a well-known businessman, was shot dead by his rivals in Talegaon Dabhade on May 12.
When contacted, additional commissioner of police (crime), Ramnath Pokale, said, “The increase in firing incidents can be attributed to the previous enmity between criminal gangs which culminates in murderous attacks. The crime branch has been continuously raiding the hideouts of criminals and has nabbed pistols from the accused based on information. At the same time, combing operations have helped the police find hidden weapons at different spots.”
Deputy commissioner of police (crime), Swapna Gore, said, “There have been only three such incidents in the PCMC area during 2023, and the reason for less number of incidents is active policing in which we have suo moto raided criminal dens and recovered as many as 150 firearms from the criminals under the direct orders of PCMC police chief Vinay Kumar Choube.” Cases have been lodged under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 307 and 504, and the Arms Act sections 3 (25), 27 and 30.
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