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Empty Bofors shells found on road near Raipur

A big cache of 170 Bofors shells, left abandoned on the roadside at Dhaneli village near Raipur, Madhya Pradesh, on the Raipur-Bilaspur Road, were recovered by the police on Saturday.

Superintendent of Police Rajiv Tandon said on Sunday that the ordnance factory at Kanpur in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh had confirmed that the consignment of 170 shells had been sent to Bolangir in Orissa on September 7 for refilling through a Calcutta-based transport company.

But truck driver Shahid of Fatehpur (Uttar Pradesh) abandoned the shells on the roadside on Tuesday last and took the vehicle to Nagpur with a fresh consignment of kirana goods loaded at Raipur.

The truck's cleaner Kallu, who was told to guard the defence goods, has been detained by the Raipur police.

Meanwhile, Inspector General of Police Rajiv Mathur said the defence authorities had been asked to confirm whether any offence had been committed by the transporter.

The alertness of Constable T R Linge of the Dharsiwa police station had helped in the recovery of the shells, the police said.

City Superintendent of Police Dharmendra Garg said the shells, each weighing more than 35 kilograms, seemed to be empty. They were to be refilled at Bolangir.

He said the shells had been kept in the custody of the Dharsiwa police and action against the transporter and the truck driver would be taken once a report was received from the ordnance factory.

Cleaner Kallu told police that the delay in reaching Raipur was due to some major repair of the Raipur-registered truck at Jabalpur. The driver had also loaded some groceries along with the shells at Kanpur and offloaded the defence goods at Raipur.

UNI

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