Nashik arms haul: Key accused booked in fresh robbery case

The police said Badrinujam Badshah was booked for not paying Rs1,000 in fuel charges to a petrol pump owner in Nashik on December 15, 2017

The Nashik police on Tuesday booked the main accused, who was arrested for carrying a huge cache of arms, in a fresh robbery case, while the Mumbai crime branch were given the custody of two of his accomplices.

The police recovered 25 rifles, one machine gun, 19 revolvers and 4,166 live cartridges from a stolen Bolerao

The police said Badrinujam Badshah alias Sumit alias Suka, 27, was booked for not paying Rs1,000 in fuel charges to a petrol pump owner in Nashik on December 15, 2017. They allegedly threatened the petrol pump staff at gunpoint. This led the owner to alert the Nashik police, which later recovered 25 rifles, one machine gun, 19 revolvers and 4,166 live cartridges from a stolen Bolerao. This was the largest arms seizure in Maharashtra since the Aurangabad case in 2006.

Superintendent of police (Nashik) Sanjay Darade confirmed that they had booked Badshah in a fresh case of robbery.

Badshah, who had many criminal cases in the past, was booked under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) by the Nashik and Mumbai police.

Meanwhile, the Mumbai crime branch on Tuesday got the custody of Amir Rashid Shaikh and Wajid Shaikh, who were with Badshah in the Bolero. The duo will be produced in a Mumbai court on Wednesday.

The Mumbai police have filed three cases against the accused; an extortion case against Badshah, his father and their relatives at RAK Marg police station; a vehicle theft case at Amboli police station; a cheating case for forging vehicle papers. The Mumbai crime branch are probing the three cases.

Five people have been arrested in the arms haul case.