Mumbai:
Alarm bells went off at the Lalbaugcha Raja Mandal in Parel yesterday when cops from Kalachowkie police station questioned a 35-year-old who was found concealing a revolver near the VIP gate of the mandal.
Authorities identified him as Pashupati Pandey, a resident of Azamgarh, Madhya Pradesh who had come to the city looking for a job as a security guard.
According to Pandey, he has a licence and permit for the gun, claims that are being verified by the authorities.
According to a police official, "Around 6.30pm, Pandey was seen moving suspiciously around the VIP gate when a constable from the Special Branch (Unit I) of the CID detained him and asked him a few questions about where he hailed from. However, when Pandey failed to provide information about his whereabouts, he was searched."
The search revealed that Pandey had a .32 bore revolver worth over Rs 70,000 following which he was handed over to the Kalachowkie police.
Cops questioned him for around five hours when it was revealed that he had been snooping around the mandal for the last two days dressed in a safari suit.
According to Additional Commissioner of Police Vinit Agarwal, "Yesterday, a man was interrogated for carrying a revolver, but it was later found that he was a bodyguard of some politician who had come for a darshan to the mandal."
However, despite repeated attempts DCP Nisar Tamboli, spokesperson for the Mumbai Police, was unavailable for comment about the incident.