THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The City Police have launched a probe after a live bullet used in 303 rifle was found abandoned on the roadside near Karumam that falls under the Nemom police station limits on Sunday morning. The bullet that is assumed to belong to the Police Department was first detected lying on the ground by an autorickshaw driver. It was lying near the autorickshaw that was parked on the roadside, said Nemom police.
The 303-rifle that was originally called as the Lee-Enfield Rifle is a magazine-fed, bolt-action rifle that was invented by the British and earned a name during the two World Wars. The police said the rifle has got an effective range of 500m and a maximum range of about 2 km. The 303 rifle was the mainstay of the state police before they migrated to more advanced Self-Loading and assault rifles. Of late, the 303 was limited to the personnel on guard duty.
The policemen posted on guard duty at Vellayani temple during the festival recently were given 303 rifles. But the cops, after the festival, had handed over the rifles and bullets to the police store at Armed Reserve Camp, police said. The Nemom SHO, meanwhile, confirmed that the bullet did not belong to those that went missing from the Special Armed Police battalion.
The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had revealed that more than 12,000 bullets had gone missing from the police armoury. The SHO said “the missing bullets from the police armoury were used in Self Loading Rifle while the one that was found near Karumam was used in 303 rifle.” Senior cops also attested to this and said 303 is not even used in training. However, other sources said the poachers in the north-eastern parts of the country use 303 rifles for hunting animals. A few months ago, the Kollam rural police had recovered live bullets from Kulathupuzha that were manufactured by Pakistan Ordnance Factory. So far, the case remain unsolved.