Weapons haul from ‘religious’ BJP leader stuns Maharashtra

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, January 18

A haul of more than 170 weapons from a BJP leader described by the police as “deeply religious” earlier this week has left even seasoned police officials stunned.

According to police officials, the weapons included air guns, more than 60 pistols, choppers and button knives were stored inside the shop belonging to Dhananjay Kulkarni (49), a local BJP leader. Police said the weapons were seized after receiving a tip-off from a gun-runner who was arrested recently. Following interrogation, the gun-runner revealed that the weapons were recovered from Kulkarni.

Kulkarni ran a clothing store as a front and the weapons were found in concealed racks behind the store shelves, police said.

Police sources said interrogation of Kulkarni revealed that he was a deeply religious man. Investigators say they are probing whether he had any links with activists from the Sanatan Sanstha who were arrested with a huge quantity of explosives in August last year.

The explosives, according to the Anti-Terror Squad, was enough to make 18-20 crude bombs. Vaibhav Raut from whose shop the explosives were seized had planned to carry out attacks on the Sunburn Music Festival, police had then said.

Officials refused to say whether Kulkarni was found to be linked with any organisation.

However, Kulkarni is said to have told police that he had procured the weapons from various sources to sell them to criminal elements as he had borrowed money heavily from money-lenders for his garments business and needed to pay off the loans. “We are verifying his claims. So far we do not know if he is linked to any organisations,” a police official from the Dombivli police station said.

Meanwhile, the Opposition parties have hit out at the BJP for patronising anti-social elements. Congress party spokesman Sachin Sawant felt that the BJP may be preparing to “create” communal
disturbances ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. “Maharashtra does not need any anti-social elements. The BJP workers themselves are behaving like anti-social elements,” NCP state president Jayant Patil said told reporters here.