Arms seized 39 times from Metro passengers last year

The Delhi Metro has witnessed an exponential increase in its ridership over the last few years, but so has the number of incidents involving seizure of ammunition like live cartridges and pistols by the security personnel during regular frisking of passengers.

While the ridership of Delhi Metro has gone up from around 9 lakh at the end of 2008 to around 18 lakh at present, the number of cases of seizure of ammunition has gone up to 39 in 2011 from a single incident in 2008.  
 “Only one case was reported in 2008 and the number increased to seven next year.
However, there was a sudden spurt in 2010 when 30 cases of ammunition recovery from commuters were recorded. In 2011, there were 39 such cases,” said a senior official of Central Industrial Protection Force (CISF). CISF, which looks after the security apparatus of DMRC, hinted at the security challenges before them. In most cases, live cartridges were found in passengers’ bags.

In 2011, people were caught for carrying pistols on six occasions.

“While on four occasions country-made pistols were recovered, two revolvers of .32 bore were also recovered,” CISF official said.

He said people in possession of country-made arms were handed over to the Delhi Metro police for further action. However, the ones with licenced arms were only stopped from travelling on Metro. They were released after they produced valid documents.The rules even bar valid licence holders to carry arms on Metro.

“The exception is only meant for the police personnel and army-men who have valid documents and well justified reasons to travel with arms,” CISF officials said.   

On three occasions in 2011, women passengers were also arrested for being in possession of live bullets. 

“A wife of a Delhi police constable claimed she was ignorant of the presence of a bullet in her bag. Later, she was released after her husband convinced the authorities by providing the necessary documents for the bullets,” a CISF official said. 

The other two women were held from Rajouri Garden and Punjabi Bagh Metro stations.  Six incidents of ammunition recovery have already been reported in the month of January this year.