Nashik arms haul case: Another man from Mumbai arrested

Police make fourth arrest, probe if Sewri resident had travelled from Uttar Pradesh by train with some of the firearms cache

The Nashik police have made a fourth arrest in the Nashik arms haul case, in which a cache of various kinds of firearms was seized a few days ago.

The arms seized by the Nashik police last Friday.

The Nashik and Mumbai police teams are now probing whether the accused fourth accused Amir Rashid Shaikh, who is from Sewri, was the gang member who left Uttar Pradesh (UP) by train along with some of the cache. Police had earlier said they are on the lookout for two more accomplices in addition to the three who have already been nabbed and one of them may have entered the state by using a different mode of transportation.

Shaikh was arrested from Sewri on Monday morning and taken to Nashik’s Chandvad police station. The Mumbai crime branch who are also investigating the case confirmed that Shaikh was present in UP during the heist but are yet to find out whether he was the part of the robbery at the private armoury shop at Pillikothi in UP’s Banda district on Friday.

The crime branch officers said Shaikh was an accomplice of the earlier arrested Badudin Juman Badshah alias Sumit alias Suka, 27, and stayed in Sewri area near Badrudin’s house. The police officials had received a tip-off that Shaikh was in RAK Marg area in Mumbai. They laid a trap and arrested him. “Badrudin had named Shaikh in his interrogation after which we had begun tracing Shaikh,” said a police officer from Nashik. The Nashik police seized 4,136 live cartridges from the gang, which stole pistols, revolvers, rifles and double-barrel guns from the armoury shop.

“We are now finding out the exact role of Shaikh in the heist and its planning. The Nashik police have arrested Shaikh and are questioning him to find out whether he was present at the armoury at the time of the robbery and had left by train to reach Mumbai,” said a crime branch officer.

A Bolero stopped at a petrol pump near Malegaon for refuelling at 7.15pm on Thursday. The occupants left the place without paying a bill for Rs1000. Minutes later, the petrol pump owner alerted the police. Assuming that the occupants were robbers, the Malegaon police called up the Nashik control room, which shared the details of the Mumbai-bound vehicle with the Chandvad police. When the accused entered the queue at the toll naka at 7.40pm one police car blocked them from behind, while an anti-dacoity squad vehicle was ahead of them.