A day after 11 cartridges were found in the baggage of a passenger at the Indira Gandhi International airport in New Delhi, the Delhi Police on Saturday urged travellers to re-check their belongings and warned of legal action against those found with ammunition.
A total of 13 cases, where ammunition has been found in the baggage of passengers during security check, have already been registered this year at the IGI Airport police station under sections of Arms Act, officials said.
The advisory comes a day after a passenger at IGI's Terminal-3, who was travelling from Delhi to Maldives by a private airlines, was found carrying 11 cartridges of .32 bore in his check-in baggage, police said.
During questioning, the passenger had told the police that the recovered cartridges belonged to his licensed weapon and had also produced his valid arms license issued in his name with area validity for Haryana, a senior police officer said.
In another instance, a woman travelling from Terminal-3 was also found in possession of one live ammunition during screening of her baggage but she could not produce valid documents for it, he said.
In both the instances, cases were registered under sections of the Arms Act at IGI Airport police station.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (IGI Airport) Rajeev Ranjan said as per legal provisions, an FIR is registered against such passenger for the possession of ammunition illegally without a valid license issued for Delhi or all India and the passenger has to face criminal proceedings before the court of law.
"Such lapses affect the journey of the passenger badly as the they cannot embark on their journey and their co-passengers and family members also face an awkward situation," he said.
Last year, 66 such cases were registered under the Arms Act at IGI Airport and an appeal — "Carrying Ammunition at Airport is a Non-Bailable Offence" — was also circulated in public domain through various social media platforms of Delhi Police. Despite issuing such appeals to public, cases where cartridges are found in the baggage of the passengers are still being reported, which is a matter of concern, he added.
