Vegetable vendor busted for selling, renting guns to goons in Andheri

Meet Poonam Nagarrsquos friendly neighbourhood bhajiwali who provides her clientele with all kinds of wares some loaded with vitamins others with bullets According to the police the 42yearold is well connected to petty thieves and chainsnatchers in the city and would sell them firearms also lend them weapons on rentThe stall at Poonam Nagar in Andheri East where 42yearold Pramila Nadar would hawk vegetables When midday photographer Nimesh Dave visited the spot yesterday a man was running the stallPramila Anand Rajan Nadar hails from Karnataka but resides in the MMRDA colony in Poonam Nagar Andheri East It was here that she ran her vegetable stall and a secret firearms business Thanks to a tipoff the police learnt of her modus operandi and set a trap with a woman constable posing as a decoy customerAccording to the cops Pramila Nadar was proving to be a tough nut to crack during interrogation as she insisted she was not an arms dealer but was only trying to get rid of someone elsersquos gunNadar was arrested on Tuesday after she sold a countrymade revolver and three live cartridges to the constable ldquoShe has been supplying firearms to robbers and chain snatchers for the past three years Each weapon was sold for Rs 10000 to Rs 15000 and was also offered on rent for Rs 3000 to Rs 4000rdquo said an officer from the AntiTerror Cell of Jogeshwari police stationFrom right Constable Nirmala Taware PSI Vilas Sawant and Police Naik Mahesh Chaudhari examine the countrymade revolver they seized from vegetable seller Pramila Anand Rajan Nadar While Sawant had got the tipoff about the illegal arms business run by the bhajiwali Taware was sent as a decoy customer PicNimesh DaveThe officer added ldquoThe stall was used as a cover for the weapons business She would get a 10 per cent cut for every firearm she sold We are looking for the associate who supplied the arms to herrdquoThe arrestPolice Sub Inspector PSI Vilas Sawant who is in charge of the ATC unit at Jogeshwari police station got a tipoff about a local bhajiwali supplying arms to criminals The police formed a team and placed Nadar under surveillanceAfter they had watched her for nearly a fortnight and confirmed that the information was genuine they sent Constable Nirmala Taware to pose as a customer Taware got in touch with Nadar through the informant and told her she wanted a revolver When the constable said she was willing to pay good money Nadar asked for Rs 15000At first the constable tried to bargain and bring the price down to Rs 12000 but Nadar refused On Tuesday Nadar brought the country revolver and the cartridges to the rendezvous spot they had agreed on near some shanties by the railway quarters in Jogeshwari close to the Vanrai templeThe constable alerted the cops waiting in plainclothes and when the exchange took place Nadar was arrested Confirming the arrest Senior Police Inspector Pradip Kale of Jogeshwari police station said ldquoShe has been booked under Sections 3 25 licence for acquisition and possession of firearms and ammunition of the Arms Act and was produced before the court She is in judicial custody and further investigations are onrdquoTough nutAccording to the police Nadar was proving to be a tough nut to crack during interrogation Although they suspect she has been involved in the arms business for three years she has refuted this in her statementWhile she confessed to having sold the country revolver illegally she claimed it was a onetime offence and that she was only trying to get rid of a gun that someone else had given her Contrary to this the informant told the police that Nadar had supplied weapons to more than one personldquoWe are sure she knows more than what she has revealed We will put her through several rounds of questioning and get the truth out of herrdquo said one of the officers Nadar told the police that three years ago she was running the MMRDA canteen in Andheri on contract basisThat is where she met one Rajesh Mishra who would visit the canteen every day She claimed it was Mishra who had given her the revolver three months ago saying he needed her to keep it safe He had told her he would come back for the gun but when he did not return she decided to get rid of itCops suspect the same man is her supplier who has been providing weapons for the past three years The police said Nadar used to live in Santacruz with her husband but after her divorce in 2002 she began living in Poonam Nagar with her son a 24yearold driverShe developed contacts with local goons who brought her new customers for firearms Six months ago she left the MMRDA canteen for reasons unknown and set up a vegetable stall from where she had been operating in recent months said officials