Mortar bombs could be part of missing ‘special package’, say GRP

AMBALA: A team of the Government Railway Police (GRP) will be leaving for Kochi following revelations that the nine 51 mm live mortar bombs recovered from tracks near the Dhola Majra railway station in Kurukshetra district on Wednesday could be part of a “special package” that had gone missing from the Aluva railway station in Kochi in August, 2012.

Manish Sirhindi

Tribune News Service

Ambala, July 24

A team of the Government Railway Police (GRP) will be leaving for Kochi following revelations that the nine 51 mm live mortar bombs recovered from tracks near the Dhola Majra railway station in Kurukshetra district on Wednesday could be part of a “special package” that had gone missing from the Aluva railway station in Kochi in August, 2012.

It has come to light that nine mortar bombs that were being transported for “proof testing” to the Central Proof Establishment Itarsi in Madhya Pradesh by the Naval Armament Depot (NAD), Kochi, had gone missing on August 20, 2012. These were being sent as a “special parcel” and could not be tracked till date. It is believed that the bombs recovered from near Dhola Majra in Shahabad are part of the same package that had gone missing en route to Itarsi.

Parmjit Singh Ahalawat, IG, Railways, said it was unclear how bombs of this grade could go missing or be misplaced during transit and then found at Dhola Majra after three years. He said the GRP team would probe whether a proper procedure to transport bombs was followed by the NAD and why these were being sent as a parcel when the bombs went missing.

“We are in touch with the NAD authorities. They may also send a team to Ambala to verify facts,” the IG said. He said the GRP would also see where the bombs were kept for three years and whether these were stolen or just misplaced during the transit. “It is hard to believe that these bombs just got misplaced and the authorities never got an FIR registered. Moreover, bombs cannot just be parcelled. A procedure has to be followed,” he said.

Meanwhile, those privy to the investigations said the manner in which the bombs were found near the rail tracks suggested that these had been thrown from a moving train as the outer casing of the bombs was damaged. The IG said search was still on near Dhola Majra.

Search on for 10th mortar

Shahabad: Army and GRP personnel on Friday continued their operation to find the 10th mortar bomb near the railway tracks between Dhola Majra and the Shahabad railway station. “The combing operation is still on to find the 10th mortar,” GRP SHO Inderjeet Singh. Though it is not certain whether there’s any 10th bomb or not, the officials have decided to keep the combing on till further orders. Officials said since a box carries 10 mortar bombs, the GRP and Army personnel had been trying to find the last one. —TNS