GRP nab teenagers with US-made pistol, live cartridges

In a first for the Mumbai railway police, its personnel nabbed two teenagers who were carrying a US-made pistol, 13 live cartridges and two live rounds of a country-made revolver at Nerul railway station in Navi Mumbai on Monday.

The two 17-year-olds, who are residents of Sewree Cross Road in Central Mumbai, have been booked under sections 3 and 25 the Indian Arms Act, said senior inspector of Vashi railway police PM Karyakarte. The two have been sent to the Children Observation Home in Bhiwandi.

Preliminary investigation revealed that two have studied up to Std IX in a school in Sewree. The pistol and cartridges were allegedly given to them by 24-year-old notorious criminal Badayu Pasha alias Sukha, who was arrested by the Bhoiwada police on February 9 with a country-made pistol and two live cartridges.

The two told the police that they knew Pasha since childhood as he was their neighbour in Sewree. He had handed over the imported pistol and live cartridges on February 8 evening, a day before his arrest, they said, adding that Pasha told them he would collect the firearm soon after his release.

Karyakarte observed that nowadays seasoned criminals are using more and more juveniles to commit serious crimes because they know that soon after the minor's arrest, the police will have to produce them before the juvenile court at the Children Observation Home. Above all, the police can't interrogate them or keep them in lock-up, he added.