Kollam: Fourteen bullets were found abandoned at Kulathupuzha along the Thiruvananthapuram-Thenmala State Highway in Kerala’s Kollam district on Saturday. One of the bullets has the inscription 'POF' (Pakistan Ordnance Factories), raising serious security concerns, the officials said.
The bullets of the Indian security forces would be marked with IOF (Indian Ordnance Factories).
The 14 bullets were wrapped in a newspaper and put in a plastic cover. Twelve bullets were found in a pouch, and the remaining two outside.
Preliminary investigation has confirmed that these bullets are the type used by the military and police forces. The 7.62mm bullets are used in long-range rifles. The military intelligence officers would carry out checks in the area on Sunday or Monday. The probe into the incident has been handed over to the anti-terrorist squad.
The bullets were found near the Muppathadi bridge along the Kulathupuzha-Madathara stretch in the Kulathupuzha forest region around 3pm on Saturday.
Kulathupuzha, around 60 km from Kollam, is in the eastern side of the state bordering Tamil Nadu.
Madathara native Joshy and his friend Ajish, a native of Bharathannur in Thiruvananthapuram, spotted the suspicious plastic cover. They first prodded the plastic cover with a stick. After they informed the cops, a huge posse of police, forensic-fingerprint experts, bomb squad and armour wing rushed to the spot and examined the bullets.
Checks using metal detectors were also conducted at the forest region near Muppathadi bridge.
The missing Kerala bullets?
The abandoned bullets were found by the roadside even as the Kerala Police is facing the heat over a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report that flagged a shortage of over 12,000 cartridges.
All bullets are generally marked with the place and year of manufacture. Therefore, it may be possible to ascertain if these abandoned bullets are those of the Kerala Police reported missing.
A special team of the Crime Branch has been asked by its chief Tomin Thachankary to conduct a detail examination of the abandoned bullets. Crime Branch already has the details of the missing cartridges of the Kerala Police and these would be compared.
Incidentally, the bullets were found abandoned soon after the Crime Branch had decided to conduct checks at the houses of the accused in the missing cartridge case.
The bullets were wrapped in a daily newspaper, which was published on January 28. Therefore, the police suspect that the bullets were abandoned after that date. However, the ‘POF’ inscription has raised security concerns.
60 bullets seized from Karnataka-Kerala border check-post
Iritty: Excise officers have seized 60 bullets from a car at the Kiliyanthara check-post along the Karnataka-Kerala border in Kannur.
K Pramod, 42, a native of Thillankeri in Kannur, has been arrested and the car seized. A team led by excise inspector B Vishnu nabbed him. The accused has been handed over to the Iritty police for further investigation.
The bullets were found hidden in the boot of the car during a vehicle inspection on Saturday. Six boxes with 10 bullets each were found. These are reportedly used in country guns.
According to excise officers, Pramod in his statement said that the bullets were purchased from Virajpet and were intended for use against wild boars and monkeys that destroy crops.