An American national was arrested from Biju Patnaik Airport here on Wednesday for the illegal possession of live bullets.
CISF personnel seized at least eight 0.22 calibre bullets from the luggage of 25-year-old William Michael Hurtubise. William, a Houston-based engineer, was about to board a chartered helicopter to Paradip at 8 am. Investigation revealed that he had arrived at Bhubaneswar on Tuesday and was staying in a hotel.
The American, an employee of US-based STX Service Engineers, said he did not know carrying ammunition in a flight was an offence in India. William has been travelling with the same bag for the last six months but security scanners at different airports apparently failed to detect the bullets. He had boarded an Air India flight from New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport to Bhubaneswar but the authorities at the Delhi airport failed to detect the ammunition in his medical kit.