The city police within a span of about 50 days arrested an eight-member gang, including four from Bihar, and recovered a huge cache of weapons from them, here on Tuesday. This was the second incident in the last two months, when the police arrested an inter-State gang possessing semi-automatic pistols.
The arrested were identified as Karanam Ravindra Babu of Padmapuram, Srikakulam; an ex-serviceman D. Raju; A. Manikanta; D. Appa Rao alias Babji, all natives of Rolugunta mandal in Visakhapatnam district; and Mukesh Kumar, Mohammed Sharuk, Ramnath Prasad and Bhola Sankar Gupta, all natives of Bihar.
The weapons seized included four country-made semi-automatic .32 pistols and 50 rounds of .32 calibre and 8 magazine clips.
The gang members were arrested by the City Task Force team lead by ACP I. Chittibabu.
In the earlier incident on March 9, the police arrested two members of an eight-member gang from Bihar and seized five semi-automatic .32 pistols, one local make tapancha, 80 rounds of .32 and 6 rounds of 9mm.
Unlike the gang that was arrested on March 9, who intended to loot finance companies such as Manappuram and Muthoot, this gang was involved in ganja smuggling.
According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP Law and Order) Naveen Gulati, D. Raju, the kingpin, is a noted ganja smuggler from Narsipatnam and Rolugunta area. He met Karanam Ravindra Babu—who after retiring from the army took to ganja smuggling—in the Central Jail in October last year when both were serving sentences under the NDPS Act.
“They bonded well, and also met the other six accused in the Central Jail, who were also serving sentence under the NDPS Act for ganja smuggling. In the jail itself they formed a gang and decided to dominate the ganja smuggling in the Agency areas by procuring arms with the help of Mukesh Kumar, who had good knowledge of the illegal arms bazaar in Bihar,” said Mr. Naveen. After coming out on bail, Raju sent Mukesh and Ravindra to Bihar to procure arms and gave them about ₹4 lakh. Ravindra Babu accompanied Mukesh to a village in Arrah district of Bihar and procured four country-made butt-loaded semi-automatic pistols for ₹30,000 each, eight magazine clips and 50 rounds at ₹350 per round. “Mukesh was paid a commission of ₹40,000 for the deal,” said Mr. Chittibabu.
Gang war
Disclosing the intent for purchasing the weapons, the DCP said, “Raju had two reasons - one he wanted to eliminate the killers of Bolem Rajubabu alias Raju, who was killed in Rolugunta in a gang war in 2016, and secondly, he wanted to arm his gang to dominate the ganja smuggling in the Agency area.”
Police sources say Raju has a strong network of about 200 people spread across the Agency area of Visakhapatnam district and he had the intention to buy about 20 such pistols.
“The timely arrests prevented the establishment of an armed ganja gang, which would have led to gang wars for dominations of turfs. And it would have been difficult for the police to ascertain the real culprits, as all killings, especially through the gun is attributed to the Maoists in the Agency areas,” said the DCP.
