Minor held for stealing revolver

The Central Zone Task Force team on Wednesday apprehended a 16-year-old boy on charges of stealing a revolver and six live rounds from a stationary car at Masab Tank.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, Task Force, P. Radha Kishan Rao, said the police received a complaint on December 24 from Mohammed Nomaan Omer, a journalist working for a vernacular news channel that his licensed .22 revolver and live rounds were missing from the car after it was parked at Masab Tank.

A case was registered at Saifabad police station and an investigation taken up. After analysing the video footage of surveillance cameras in the area, the boy was arrested on Wednesday from his residence at Asif Nagar, Mr. Rao said. He said the police have also booked a case against the complainant, Omer, for not following the rules of Arms Act-2016 and he would be prosecuted.

As per the provisions of Indian Arms Act, the weapon licence-holder should take precautions for the security and upkeep of the firearm. Otherwise, action can be initiated against him/her. The 16-year-old, who was arrested by the police, reportedly maintained that he stole the weapon from the journalist’s car. Stuffed inside a pouch, the weapon was lying atop the car’s dashboard, the police said.

The minor said the car’s doors were not locked. “I could easily open the door and collect the pouch from the dashboard,” he was quoted as saying by the police. This raised the question whether the journalist failed to take enough caution to keep the weapon secure.

Mr. Omer of Sultanshahi in Mogalpura, a journalist with an Urdu news channel, had parked his car near the bus stop and had gone to have dinner with his friend on December 24 last year.

Explaining the reason behind granting the weapon licence to Mr. Omer, South Zone DCP V. Satyanarayana said the former had threat to his life and was attacked several times.

“It was only after verifying all the facts a licence was granted to him in 2016,” he said.

He said every year the south zone gets more than 40 applications for issuing the weapon licence in which at least five belong to journalists and a very few are granted.