On Wednesday, police were shocked during the Alipiri check post as they found a gun and 14 rounds in a car at the entrance of the famous Tirupati Venkateswara temple in Andhra Pradesh.
The police immediately held four people inside the car for questioning. The car searched was an SUV that had residents of Maharashtra, two women and one man. The 14 bullets were found under the seat of the driver and the gun was found in the trunk of the car. The police also realized that some of the bullets did not match the pistol that was found.
The Tirumala vigilance and security wing detained three people from the car for questioning. The police found out during the interrogation that the gun belonged to one of the woman’s son, Vijay Mane, who runs a hotel in Pune. The mother also explained the weapon was licensed. The police went on to question the whereabouts of Vijay and found that he was climbing the hills by foot.
Ake Ravikrishna the Chief Security and Vigilance officer alerted the teams on Tirumala hills to track down Vijay. Soon after the police found Vijay at the footpath and handed him over to the Tirumala police.
Ake Ravikrishna spoke to a news channel and reported even if the weapon was licensed it is not allowed on the Tirumala hills. The rule is clear every pilgrim must hand over all licensed weapons to the local police before going to the hills.
After questioning Vijay the police reported he had two licensed weapons for use in Maharashtra. Vijay also informed his father was a former assistant commissioner of police in Pune. The police asked for a copy of the license which he could not show but instead showed them a picture of the license on his phone.
Vijay Mane pleaded guilty and said he was unaware of the rules in Tirumala. He also added he had carried his weapon for a number of visits to different temples and never faced this issue.
K. Venkata Ravi, Tirumala Two Town police inspector, reported that a case has been registered under violating the Arms Act. He further added that the investigation is going on, ”We have not made any arrests yet as we are still in the process of verifying the authenticity of the gun license.”
