Factory manufacturing country-made guns unearthed

"A raid was conducted at an isolated place near Lotra village in Santalpur taluka of the district under the supervision of Patan SP M S Bharada. We recovered highly sophisticated tools, generally used to make country-made guns and pistols," a police official said.

"The information regarding this isolated place was revealed during the interrogation of one Dhiraj Panchal, who was arrested couple of days ago and remanded to police custody," he said.

Police inspector D D Chaudhary said, three guns and as many pistols were seized. The market value of the guns could be around Rs 35,000 while the value of pistol could be around Rs 12,000.

During the raid, the police also seized various types of cutting tools including cutters of different sizes, spare parts of pistols, in addition to iron sharpening tools, furnace, rods and moulding instruments.

Panchal, a resident of Rapar taluka, was arrested when he was allegedly waiting with guns and pistols hidden beneath the cotton filled in his bags to deliver them to a customer.

The police are questioning locals who were at the scene as well as others believed to be associated with him.