Lost and found: Burglar hunt lead to an antique revolver
It was business as usual for the police in Thakurganj a couple of days ago, when they arrested a gang of burglars and recovered a large cache of arms from their possession.
It was business as usual for the police in Thakurganj a couple of days ago, when they arrested a gang of burglars and recovered a large cache of arms from their possession. However, things turned interesting when they came across a stolen Smith and Wesson revolver from over 40 years ago.
Quite surprisingly, the firearm – apparently stolen from the police – was still in working condition.
Thakurganj sub-inspector Atul Srivastava said that the police stopped using Smith and Wesson revolvers about two decades ago, and only a few working models were still in existence. “As we were surprised to find the revolver with the gang, we crosschecked the details with reserve police lines. We found that only two revolvers of this particular model had been stolen,” he added.
Srivastava said that while a revolver of this model was stolen from the Mahanagar in 1975, another went missing from Rae Bareli’s Bhadhokar police station two years later. However, it was difficult to identify which one this belonged to because the unique code embossed on the revolver had been filed off. Forensic tests would be conducted on the weapon to get further information on it, he added.
Gang leader Mohd Rehan revealed that he had purchased the revolver from Munna, an illegal firearms dealer in the Old City. However, the three other gang members – Mohd Tanveer, Ujaib, and Sunny Soni – didn’t seem to know anything about it. Srivastava said police are hunting for Munna, so he could be quizzed about the stolen revolver. Police also recovered a pistol, stolen by the gang from an advocate’s house a few days ago.
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