Banda arms supplier killed in encounter

UP arms supplier killed in encounter

Mumbai, october 1: Mahendra Kumar (36), a supplier of weapons from Uttar Pradesh, was killed in an encounter by the D N Nagar police in Vakola on Sunday afternoon. The police seized a cache of arms from his vehicle.

Following a tip-off that Kumar was reaching the city, a team from the D N Nagar police station laid a trap for him near Kurla. Around 1.30 pm, when Kumar reached the spot, police vehicles followed him and closed in on the white Tata Sumo he was travelling in.

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“We asked the accused to surrender, but he started firing at us. I fired back and burst the right rear wheel of the vehicle. Kumar jumped out of it and tried to escape, so we shot him,” said Pradeep Sharma, Senior Police Inspector of the D N Nagar police station.

Kumar, who was shot four times, was rushed to a nearby hospital in Vakola. But he succumbed to his injuries en route. The person driving the vehicle, however, managed to escape.

“We seized a carbine, two pistols and two revolvers—all imported, one country-made revolver, one factory revolver made in India and 22 live rounds of ammunition from the vehicle. Kumar was here to sell some weapons but was carrying only a few samples for display,” said Additional Commissioner of Police, Western Region, Bipin Bihari. According to the police, Kumar was a known weapons supplier from Banda district in western UP. He was also, allegedly, a small-time dacoit.

“Kumar has at least 27 cases registered against him, including that of murder, extortion, kidnapping and attempted murder. He had jumped bail about a year back and was absconding since then,” added Sharma.

The D N Nagar police are searching for the absconding driver.

Courtesy: Express News Service