A week before raiding the illegal firearms manufacturing units in Umarti village of Madhya Pradesh (MP), the Pune city police had conducted a detailed recce of the area, long known for producing and smuggling country-made pistols and other weapons branded as “Umarti Shikilgar Arms (USA)”.
On Saturday, a team of about 105 Pune policemen, led by deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Somay Munde, destroyed nearly 50 kilns used for moulding and manufacturing illegal weapons across four units in Umarti.
During the operation, police seized five country-made pistols, two live cartridges, four empty cartridges, five magazines, 100 raw barrels, five finished barrels, 14 grinding machines, 15 pistol bodies, six sawing materials and five choppers, DCP Munde said on Sunday.
Using metal detectors, the team also recovered several firearm spare parts that had been buried by racketeers. Not many “ready-to-use” weapons were found as the units typically produced spare parts and assembled firearms only on receiving specific orders from clients, including criminals from multiple states, officials said.
Pune police commissioner Amitesh Kumar said investigations have revealed that racketeers from Umarti had sold around 800 firearms in Pune and other parts of Maharashtra over the past few years, using social media channels for communication.
A total of 47 suspects were detained during Saturday’s raid. Of them, seven alleged racketeers, all residents of Umarti in MP’s Barwani district, were arrested and brought to Pune. They have been identified as Bachhansingh alias Sunnybhai Chawla (37), Jasbirsingh Prakashsingh Chawla (22), Pravinsingh Uttamsingh Takrana (22), Rajpalsingh Pradhansingh Juneja (36), Aloksingh Joharsingh Barnala (27), Nanaksingh Ajitsingh Barnala (32) and Gurucharansingh Barnala (23).
The seven were arrested in a case registered at Vimantal police station, in which three Pune residents Pradip alias Babu Kondhalkar (23) of Kesnand, Shaikh Ahmad alias Babu Sayyad (20) of Bibvewadi, and Mayur Digambar Waghmare (22) of Kondhwa had been arrested earlier this month. Police had recovered 11 pistols from them, and subsequent probe established that the weapons were procured from Umarti racketeers.
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Police have added Section 111 (organised crime) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) to the case, which was initially registered under the Indian Arms Act. They also plan to invoke the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
Produced before a Pune court on Sunday, the seven accused were remanded in police custody for five days. “Further investigation is on,” said senior police inspector Govind Jadhav of Vimantal police station.
Umarti, infamous as the “village of pistols”, shares its border with Maharashtra near Chopda taluka in Jalgaon district. According to police, weapons manufactured there, including pistols, live cartridges and modified small guns, are smuggled not just into Maharashtra and MP but also to states such as Punjab through a well-established network of illegal suppliers.
When Pune police sought inputs from MP counterparts, they were told that many villagers, particularly from the Shikligar community, were involved in illegal arms-making and might resist a raid by pelting stones or even opening fire.
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Police commissioner Kumar said the decision to dismantle the illegal units was taken despite the threat of retaliation, as Umarti had emerged as a major source of firearms supplied to criminal networks in Pune in recent years. He added that one of the pistols used in the killing of gangster Sharad Mohol in January 2024 was sourced from Umarti.
“There were limitations such as a difficult geographical location of Umarti and the support system provided by locals to the firearms racketeers. But microplanning of the action was done. A police team went to Umarti a week before to conduct a recce by travelling in the area in private vehicles. We also co-ordinated with the Madhya Pradesh ATS and Jalgaon police,” Kumar said.
DCP Munde said the raid was conducted at dawn to minimise the risk of resistance. “Considering the chances of retaliation by firearms racketeers, we decided to raid Umarti in the early hours. Accordingly, we started the raid by surrounding the village at 4 am on Saturday. We were carrying sufficient arms and ammunition and prepared to face any situation. Quick Response Team (QRT) was deployed for assistance,” he said.
Police set up a temporary wireless communication unit in the village for the duration of the operation. Officers conducting the raid wore body cameras linked to a live-feed monitoring system in Pune, while drones were deployed for aerial surveillance.
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Senior officers, including joint commissioner of police Ranjan Kumar Sharma, additional commissioners Manoj Patil, Pankaj Deshmukh and Sanjay Patil, DCP (crime) Nikhil Pingle and DCP (HQ) Rajlakshmi Shivankar monitored the raid and provided logistical support.
Police commissioner Amitesh Kumar later felicitated the 105 personnel involved in the operation and announced cash rewards for all of them.
