AK-47 used to free Papla from jail found, aide held
JAIPUR: An AK-47 assault rifle, along with other arms and ammunition, was recovered on Wednesday from an aide of gangster Vikram Gurjar alias Papla, who was recently arrested from Kolhapur in Maharashtra, police said.
“We have recovered an AK-47, two foreign made pistols and 30 live cartridges from the house of Mahipal Singh Gurjar (25), located in Bawal city of Haryana. Mahipal has been arrested,” said Hawa Singh Ghumariya, inspector general of police (IGP), Jaipur range.
It is reportedly the same rifle, which was used by Papla’s aides to free from him from the Behror lock-up on September 6, 2019, the police said.
Ghumariya said a few days
PAPLA HAD ESCAPED FROM THE RAJASTHAN POLICE CUSTODY IN A DRAMATIC MANNER IN SEPTEMBER 2019
ago, Mahipal had shifted the arms and ammunitions from Kolphapur to a dilapidated house in Bawal. “The accused had hid the arms in bushes grown at the abandoned house,” he said, adding, “Mahipal played a key role in providing financial assistance to Papla in his absconding period.”
Ghumariya said the AK-47 was purchased from the Purvanchal belt of Uttar Pradesh, while two guns and ammunitions were bought from Delhi. “We have sent our teams to trace the suppliers,” he added.
Papla had escaped from the Rajasthan police custody in a dramatic manner in September 2019. On the day of incident, around 15 to 20 people armed with AK-47S arrived in three cars at the Behror police station and began firing. As policemen ducked for cover, attackers stormed into the police station and walked away with Papla.
A special team, led by additional superintendent of police (addl SP) Siddhant Sharma, was trying to locate Papla, who was arrested from Kolhapur on January 28, 2020, and brought to Rajasthan.
During his questioning, police found that Papla had changed his name to Udham Singh and had managed an Aadhaar card in the name. He was living there with a woman, who ran a gym. Police zeroed in on him on January 26 and he was nabbed on the intervening night of January 27-28. Papla tried to jump from third floor of a building to evade his arrest but was nabbed.