Jaldhar Mahto. Pix: Bhola Prasad

Jamshedpur, Oct. 17: For 19-year-old Jaldhar Mahto, selling firearms was like doing any other brisk business.

But the youth, a resident of Paniada village in Patamda police station area of East Singhbhum district, did not know carrying an unlicensed gun would land him in jail.

Police arrested Mahto for allegedly possessing a loaded pistol, from Hotel Karnal, in Sakchi, this morning.

The firearm, along with nine live cartridges, was kept in a bag that the youth had carried along to the hotel where he was supposed to meet the buyer. The police seized the pistol as well as the .32 bore cartridges.

The price of the pistol, which is of a Mauser make, is said to be valued at Rs 1.5 lakh.

The officer-in-charge of Sakchi police station, Birendra Prasad, said the accused appeared to be an arms supplier, but in view of his changing statements, it seems that he is just a pawn in a network of a gang of arms suppliers operating in the region.

Deputy superintendent of police (city) Rajiv Ranjan said: “We have arrested a youth with firearms and live cartridges. But it is not yet clear whether he is an arms supplier or just a carrier. We are interrogating to find out the source from where he got the arms.”

When asked, Mahto told the reporter that a couple of months ago he went to Jamshedpur, where he had met a man at a restaurant in Sakchi.

He said the man, later identified as S.K. Singh, expressed his desire to buy coins of pre-British era.

“I went with a coin and showed it to him, but Singh refused to take it saying it was duplicate and asked for a pistol. One of my relatives Pintu Mahto arranged the firearms for me,” the youth said, adding that he was arrested before he could supply the gun to Singh.

On being queried, the youth said it was his first attempt to sell a pistol. He said he did not know that carrying an unlicensed gun or trying to sell it would invite trouble.

“If I had any idea about the consequences of such attempts, I would never have come to the city with the firearms,” he said.