Alappuzha: Three people have been arrested for stealing the pistol of a policeman. The incident happened on a private bus on Thursday afternoon when the cop was escorting an accused to the jail after producing him in court.
Alappuzha South police arrested Yadhu Krishnan, 20, Antony Xavier, 21, and Sandhya, 35 for the crime.
Yadhu is a native of Alappuzha town, Antony of Ernakulam and the latter is from Punnapra.
The pistol was recovered from the trio as soon as they were tracked down.
The pistol belonged to one of the two cops from the Armed Reserved Police camp who were on the bus.
The cops realised that the pistol was missing only after getting off the bus.
Yadhu and Antony were seated behind them, the police said.
The police immediately went to the private bus stand in search of the missing pistol. The bus crew told them two people had gone towards the beach area after getting off the bus and one of them had plaster on his hand.
The cops found the two accused near the beach. Sandhya was also with them. When questioned, the accused initially denied any wrongdoing, but Sandhya later took the pistol from her bag and handed it over.
Yadhu and Antony have conceded to the police that they had examined the pistol and checked how to load it.
They are involved in criminal cases including ganja peddling, according to the police.
Sandhya is their friend.
We are also probing if they stole the pistol with any other motive, according to Alappuzha South Station House Officer S Arun and Sub-Inspector V D Reji Raj.
