A 55-year-old builder and social media influencer, Surendra Panduranga Patil, was arrested in Maharashtra's Thane district for alleged possession of illegal weapons.
Acting on a tip-off, police conducted a raid at his bungalow in Dombivli and recovered a cache of weapons, including five country-made pistols and revolvers, two air guns, 371 cartridges, 167 air gun pellets, a sword, a button knife, and two steel rods.
The recovered items, valued at around ₹10 lakh, were concealed in a hidden compartment behind a false panel attached to a shoe rack.
Patil, known by nicknames such as 'Pookie Uncle' and 'Pookie Don', has a following of over three lakh users on Instagram.
He had earlier courted controversy for making a social media reel inside a police inspector's cabin and now faces fresh charges under the Arms Act and the Maharashtra Police Act.
