Mumbai: 5 days later, cops fish out revolver from Bandra nullah

Following a 74-hour-long search operation, which spanned across five days, officers from Bandra GRP police station finally managed to fish out a stolen revolver dumped in the nullah opposite Bandra Terminus last week.

Labourers try to fetch the revolover from the nullah outside Bandra Terminus

A total of 25 labourers were deployed to scan the nullah to recover the US-made firearm belonging to Navi Mumbai-based developer Vanveer Rajput.

The revolver and the cartridges

Speaking to mid-day, GRP Deputy Commissioner of Police (WR) Deepak Devraj said, "On June 17, an FIR was lodged at the Bandra police station about the stolen revolver following which Inspector Callistus D'mello initiated a probe in the matter. The revolver was finally found at 11.15 am yesterday."

Describing the search operation, D'mello said, "It took nearly 74 hours to recover the stolen firearm. We sought help from the BMC, as a JCB was needed to de-silt the nullah. So far, three persons have been arrested in this case - two juveniles (both 17) and their 18-year-old accomplice Hamraj Mehra. While the juveniles are currently lodged at Dongri remand home, Mehra is currently in judicial custody."

The case
In his statement to the GRP officers on June 17, Rajput (49) told them that he was travelling to Mumbai from Rajasthan via Bhuj-Bandra express. Rajput said all his belongings were in place when he last checked them before going to sleep on Thursday night when the train had reached Ahmedabad. However, his revolver (R3.25 lakh), four cartridges worth R800 each and Rs 16,000 were missing when he woke up the next morning (June 17). "The GRP did a great job. I was present at the spot while the search operation was on. I thank them for helping me," said Rajput.