This story is from June 24, 2017

Bullet mystery has officials at IGI stumped

Ramandeep Singh, Jagjit Singh Dhillon and Rahul Kant Singh may have never seen — or met — each other. However, they have a connection, or so it may seem. They are among the scores of people who are under police lens for having been caught with a bullet in their check-in baggage at Indira Gandhi International Airport.
Bullet mystery has officials at IGI stumped
Representative image.
Key Highlights
  • In most case, the bullets were detected during X-ray screening in the check-in baggage of passengers headed abroad.
  • Airport and CISF officers admitted that of the 5-7 cases of bullets being detected in baggage every month.
  • Mostly army or paramilitary forces personnel who admitted to mistakenly carrying a live round.
NEW DELHI: Ramandeep Singh, Jagjit Singh Dhillon and Rahul Kant Singh may have never seen — or met — each other. However, they have a connection, or so it may seem. They are among the scores of people who are under police lens for having been caught with a bullet in their check-in baggage at Indira Gandhi International Airport.
The mystery of these passengers carrying just one bullet — with no idea of where it came from — has stumped officials.
Every month, around five people have been found carrying a single bullet in their baggage. Interestingly, while these passengers are from different corners of the world, a majority of the bullets have KF engraved at the base signifying the ordnance factory where they were made. Also inscribed on the bullets are the letters S&W and the digits 32, referring to the model, Smith & Wesson, and firearm calibre, according to the FIRs lodged in the cases. Security and airport officials say the first few digits of the serial number in cartridges are usually the same with unique digits at the end.
In most case, the bullets were detected during X-ray screening in the check-in baggage of passengers headed abroad. CISF and airport officials, however, aren’t sure if there is some foul play involved. “Most of the individuals belong to the army or paramilitary forces and may have accidentally carried a cartridge or live round in their baggage. We follow protocol and hand them over to police for action,” said a senior CISF officer.
Ramandeep Singh (22), for example, was headed for Malaysia on June 17 when the airline security was alerted about a bullet in his check-in baggage. He was promptly offloaded from the flight. The live cartridge had “KF 32 S&W L” engraved on it. Singh, however, was clueless about how the bullet landed in his luggage.
Similarly, 27-year-old Dhillon was travelling to London on an Air India flight when a bullet, with KF 32 S&W L etched on the bottom, was found in his check-in luggage. In his complaint, an airport security officer said he had got a call from DIAL security to escort the passenger to level 4 after the cartridge was detected in his bag. In another case, Rahul Kant Singh was flying to Pune on a Spice Jet flight on June 17 when he was offloaded for having a bullet marked “32 S&W L” in his bag.

Airport and CISF officers admitted that of the 5-7 cases of bullets being detected in baggage every month, it was mostly army or paramilitary forces personnel who admitted to mistakenly carrying a live round. Generally, shooters and military personnel have documents that authorise them to possess bullets. However, most of them carry one or multiple cartridges, rather than a single bullet. An FIR is registered only when a person is unable to account for the bullets.
In the above cases too, the FIRs were registered after the passengers couldn’t justify why they were in possession of live ammunition. A senior police officer said an FIR under Section 25 of the Arms Act was lodged in such cases.
author
About the Author
Raj Shekhar

Raj Shekhar Jha is an assistant editor with The Times of India, Delhi. He has been writing on internal security and crime for TOI since 2011.

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