The district police arrested four persons, who were allegedly manufacturing and selling countrymade guns at K.Kotapadu mandal in the district on Sunday. The police seized 11 countrymade guns from them. The police also arrested a receiver, who was allegedly purchasing weapons from them.
The arrested were identified as R. Appalanarasayya (62), B. Satyanarayana (45), both belonging to K. Santhapalem village of K Kotapadu mandal and M. Apparao (30) of Kothavalasa mandal in Vizianagaram district, P Sankararao (35) of Devarapalli mandal and receiver G. Gurrayya (60) of Ramachandrapuram village of K.Kotapadu mandal.
Based on credible information, the police teams led by Chodavaram Circle Inspector Eliyas Mohammed and Sub Inspector of K.Kotapadu police station, Narayana Rao, and staff conducted a raid and arrested the five persons.
Police said that the accused have been manufacturing the weapons for a long time, but were caught for the first time based on confidential information. The weapons, also called single-barrel muzzle-loaders (SBML), are mostly used for hunting in the agency areas, the SI said.
Circle Inspector of Chodavaram Ilyas Mohammed said that generally hunters from various mandals in Visakhapatnam agency procure the guns from the accused for about ₹3,000 to ₹5,000. “We have also seized barrels and other equipment which are being used for making these weapons,” he said.
