Police in Mumbai have arrested a senior functionary of the BJP after they recovered a huge cache of arms from his fashion accessories store in Dombivli area of the city. The arrested BJP functionary has been identified as Dhananjay Kulkarni, who ran a fashion accessories store in Tilak Nagar area of Dombivli.
The BJP has reportedly confirmed that Kulkarni was a senior member of the saffron party and worked the party’s vice president of Dombivli unit. He was also the committee member of the BJP.
Police recovered around 170 weapons that included eight air guns, 10 swords, 38 press button knives, 25 choppers, nine kukris, nine guptis (bladed weapon concealed in a wooden case), five knives, three axes, and one sickle. Sanju John, senior inspector of Kalyan unit of Thane Crime Branch, was quoted by news agency PTI, “Following a tip-off, the raid was conducted at Tapasya House of Fashion, which sells fashion accessories and cosmetic products.”
Maharashtra: Huge cache of weapons seized from a shop of BJP worker Dhananjay Kulkarni in Dombivli, Thane yesterday. He has been arrested and sent to judical custody. pic.twitter.com/ooKpZoAAmu
— ANI (@ANI) January 16, 2019
John said that Kulkarni had procured the lethal weapons from Mumbai’s Crawford Market as well as from Punjab and Rajasthan.
These weapons were kept on sale at the shop. “The seized weapons are collectively worth Rs 1.86 lakh. The outlet has been in operation since seven months,” an official was quoted as saying. The recovery of weapons in such large numbers assumes significance in light of this year’s Lok Sabha poils. It’s not clear whether Kulkarni was part of a design to cause unrest in Maharashtra ahead of this year’s Lok Sabha polls.