A live bullet round used by Israeli defence forces was found in the handbag of a child passenger at the Chennai International Airport on Sunday. The five-year-old girl was part of a family of six that was on its way to Singapore from Dubai via Chennai.
According to sources in the intelligence agencies, the family of Krishna Dubey Bihari, 64, a former Central Excise official of Uttar Pradesh, arrived from Dubai by Indigo Flight 6E-66 at 2.50 a.m. on Sunday.
As the family proceeded to board a connecting Indigo 6E-51 flight to Singapore and went through security check, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel found a live round in the hand luggage of Mr. Dubey’s grandchild.
Formal complaint lodged
The CISF personnel lodged a formal complaint with the local police and handed over the family to them for investigation, the sources said.
Inquiries revealed that Mr. Dubey lived in Singapore since his daughter had settled there. The family was returning to Singapore after a trip to Israel via Dubai.
Asked by a Joint Interrogation Committee comprising Central and State intelligence officials, Mr. Dubey said his granddaughter had been playing on the beach with other children in Tel Aviv and was seen picking small things along the shore. It was possible that the child could have picked the live ammunition and kept it in her bag, the sources quoted the passenger as saying.
No mala fide
After an interrogation that lasted more than an hour, the investigators were convinced by Mr. Dubey’s replies.
The family was allowed to continue its journey to Singapore and no case was registered since no mala fide intent was made out in the case.
