THERE was no let-up today in the shell scare as the authorities at the Inland Container Depot at Tughlaqabad found 61 shells and 25 fuses in a container carrying scrap. This was headed for a
Bhiwadi (Rajasthan) factory, Norma Steels.
What’s disturbing is that the consignment came from strife-torn Somalia, had aroused suspicion way back in August and Delhi Police had been informed on August 7. Surprisingly, for two months nothing was done — not even when the crisis escalated over the past one week.
‘‘When the container arrived in the first week of August, we found it contained some explosives. The police was informed on August 7,’’ said Sharad Shrivastva, Deputy Commissioner (Customs, ICD). The police, along with NSG experts, started their screening this morning.
‘‘When the final count was done, there were 43 live shells — 18 were semi-live and 25 were fuses used in the shells,’’ said Praveer Ranjan, DCP (South). Following the recovery of these explosives, Delhi Police has registered a case under the Explosives Act at Ohkla police station.
The Customs officials at the ICD have not given clearance to any container carrying scrap since the explosion at Bhushan Steels in Ghaziabad on September 30 in which 10 people were killed. Over 1400 containers are held up here. Each container has around 17-18 tonnes of scrap.
Customs officials said the agent for Norma Steels was a Dubai-based company, Al-Munejaf Trading Company. They had bought the scrap from Somalia. The consignment had come from Djibouti port, which is adjacent to Somalia. It landed in Mumbai and then came to ICD by train. American Express Shipping Company was its customs house agent.
One of the four containers bound for Bhushan Steels was also checked but no explosives were found. The remaining three containers will be searched tomorrow by a joint team of NSG and Delhi Police.
Yesterday, 29 shells were found abandoned in Mayapuri. The police have written to the Army for disposing of these shells.