A pistol and a machete were recovered from a State Express Transport Corporation bus, which arrived in Tirunelveli on Wednesday from Chennai.
Sources in the State Express Transport Corporation depot at Vannarpet in Palayamkottai said the SETC’s air-conditioned seat-cum-sleeper bus with registration number TN 01 AN 3227, which had reached Tirunelveli from Chennai on Wednesday morning, had been parked in the depot for mandatory cleaning before being operated to Chennai again in the evening.
Around 2.30 p.m., the cleaner found a pistol and a two-feet long machete (known as Thuppakki Arival) beneath seat number 9. He informed the supervisor and the depot manager, who alerted the Palayamkottai police.
While the police arrived and took the pistol and the machete for examining it, the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad personnel checked thoroughly all the buses parked there for explosives. However, no explosive was found in any of the buses.
“The pistol will be examined by the ballistic experts,” said a police officer, who did not elaborate if the firearm had been loaded with ammunition.
Police suspect the passenger who had brought the weapons had abandoned it in the bus itself due to unavoidable circumstances.
“We have obtained the details of the passengers who travelled in this bus from Chennai and the commuters who boarded the bus midway. CCTV footages from Kilambakkam bus terminus in Chennai and Vaeinthaankulam new bus-stand here have been obtained to identify the culprit. We’ll crack this case soon,” said the police sources.
Only a few days ago, the police seized a modified air pistol on May 7 from a car parked near Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital, where the owner of the car Ferdin Rayan of Palayamkottai was undergoing treatment for cut injuries he had sustained in an attack unleashed on him by a stranger on May 4. Since the firearm had been modified to improve its firepower, it was sent to Chennai for obtaining ballistic expert’s opinion.
