KOLLAM/T’PURAM : In the wake of 14 abandoned bullets being found at Kulathupuzha in Kollam, military intelligence officers reached the spot and carried out inspection in and around the area on Sunday. The bullets were found near the Muppathadi stretch in the Kulathupuzha forest region on Saturday. With one of the bullets having the inscription Pakistan Ordnance Factory on it, the incident has raised serious security concerns. The military intelligence team, led by a senior officer from New Delhi, along with a group led by Kollam Rural SP Hari Sankar who is currently investigating the incident, visited the spot.
The area was thoroughly scanned in a bid to trace the origin of the bullets. “The probe is on, as part of which the military officers conducted a check. As of now, we haven’t received any order regarding handing over the case to any central agency and the case is still under the district rural police,” said Hari Sankar.
ATS begins probe into bullets found abandoned in Kollam
State Police Chief Loknath Behera, meanwhile, confirmed the involvement of terror outfits. Probes have been launched by Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) as well as the National Investigation Agency. “We’ve learnt the bullets are of foreign make. The ATS has begun an investigation. I’ve contacted my counterparts in other states for assistance,” Behera told reporters in the capital on Sunday.
The bullets were found abandoned on the roadside near the Muppathadi bridge on the Kulathupuzha- Madathara route by a group of civilians. As per preliminary findings, the 7.62 mm bullets are those used in machine guns. The police have registered a case under the Arms Act.
Missing Kerala bullets
As the Kerala Police are facing heat over the Comptroller and Auditor General’s findings that 12,061 bullets were missing from the armoury of the Special Armed Police Battalion, there was a suspicion whether the abandoned bullets were those. However, the probe conducted on the instructions of the Crime Branch Chief Tomin Thachankary, led by the Crime Branch DySp on Sunday, confirmed these bullets were not among the missing bullets, said a senior officer. Hence, the probe is more seriously looking into how POFinscribed bullets reached the spot and if there is the involvement of any terrorist group in the incident, said the officer.
Top cops inspect spot
As part of the probe into the incident of the abandoned bullets, the Kerala Police’s Anti Terror Squad (ATS) DIG Anup Kuruvilla John and Crime Branch chief Tomin J Thachankary reached the spot to examine the bullets on Sunday. “Only after catching the culprit we could confirm the terrorist angle,” said Thachankary.