Ammunition seizure: No terrorist link, says TN DGP

Chennai, June 10 (UNI) Tamil Nadu Director General of Police J P Jain today denied allegations from certain quarters about the involvement of terrorists in the recent huge haul of cartridges at SIPCOT complex in suburban Gummidipoondi, stating that they were decades old and could not be used now.

Responding to the allegations, he said in a release here that investigations revealed that the unearthed cartridges dated back to 1917 to 1967 and were manufactured abroad.

It may be recalled that on June seven last, after an explosion near a Sri Lankan Tamil refugee camp at Gummidipoondi, in which two boys were injured, police seized from a bush and a disused well, 364 cartridges, nine corroded cells, a grenade and 150 kg of cartridge scrap.

The DGP said 14 steel companies, which imported scrap from abroad and made steel pipes out of it, were functioning in the SIPCOT complex. Suspecting the hand of these companies in discarding the cartridges, a thorough search was conducted there. Police seized 80 corroded cells and 50 kg of used cartridges like the ones found in the well from one Vinayaka Alloys Pvt Ltd and arrested its Proprietor Ashok Kumar Jain and Manager Manoj Kumar.

He rejected as ''far from truth'' the allegations that the people of the State were under the grip of fear and the police were soft pedalling on issues regarding terrorists.

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