bhopal police on wednesday arrested six persons claiming to have busted a gang of illegal firearm smugglers in the city seven countrymade pistols four cartridges and eight swords were recovered from their possessioninterestingly the kingpin of the gang resides in jail colony and three of the accused are said to be close relatives of policemen police said that the accused purchased countrymade pistols and cartridges from sikilgar community from khandwa and khargone at a price range of rs 5000 to rs 8000 and sold them in bhopal for as high a price as rs 20000 the accused told police that they found potential customers on the internet by posting pictures of the arms on the social media sitesaccording to police the youths got involved in illegal trade for easy money so that they could afford a luxurious lifestyle however the seizure of arms from jail colony which is close to bhopal central jail raises serious questionsit is a major breakthrough before assembly polls as these weapons could be used to create nuisance during the election time said police sho nishatpura yuvraj singh chouhan said that police had received a tipoff that the accused devendra mahawar 23 a resident of jail colony was smuggling countrymade pistols and selling them in the citythe accused is brother of a jail guard deployed in bhopal central jail a cop posing as a customer approached the accused devendra and his accomplice vinay mahawar 22 a resident of ashoka garden met the policeman and showed him pistols the cop asked them whether they would be able to supply cartridges and they showed him a sack full of magazine assuring him of proper supply the cop recorded a video of their interaction after which a police team raided their homes the two accused were arrested three pistols were recovered from their possession csp nishatpura lokesh sinha said during interrogation the accused revealed names of their friends and customers after which police arrested vinays brother rahul 28 piyush nayak 20 manish vishwakarma 20 and rajkumar tyagi 27piyushs father is also a jail guard and rajkumars father is posted at shyamla hills police station said policeeight swords were recovered from vinay and rahuls house their father is a retired bank official said police dig dharmendra chouhdary said that the accused will be taken on police remand and interrogate further meanwhile in another major seizure hanumanganj police nabbed a historysheeter saeed lakhera 40 a resident of qazi camp and recovered two 12 bore shotguns along with one illegal pistol one revolver and six live cartridges from his possession the accused has more than 25 cases registered against himdig choudhary said that procedure to charge lakhera under national security act will be initiated