Two men were detained after 24 live cartridges were seized from their baggage at the airport in Pune on Thursday, a police official said.
A total of 22 live cartridges were found in the baggage of a 58-year-old passenger, who was scheduled to fly to Bengaluru in a SpiceJet flight, Vimantal police station’s senior inspector Dilip Shinde said.
“After the detection, the passenger was handed over to the airport police. Our investigation has revealed that he has a valid license of a .32 caliber pistol,” PTI quoted him as saying.
The man told the police he was in a hurry and forgot to remove the cartridges from the bag before heading to the airport, Shinde said. A probe was underway, he added.
In another incident, two live cartridges of a .9 mm weapon were seized from the baggage of a 61-year-old passenger, who was scheduled to travel to New Delhi in an IndiGo flight, Shinde said.
The passenger, hailing from Delhi, worked as a locomotive driver with the Railways, the police officer said.
“He claimed that he had come to Pune to visit his son, who works as an IT engineer here. He has also said that he does not have any valid gun license,” he said.
“We are questioning him about how the two cartridges came into his bag. He is also checking with his son and other family members about it,” Shinde said.
The two cartridges found in the bag of Delhi-bound passenger will be sent for ballistic analysis, and if they are found to be genuine and the passenger fails to produce a valid gun license, a case will be registered against him, the official said.
First Published: Jan 10, 2019 17:28 IST
Source: HindustanTimes