MH-AIRPORT-CARTRIDGES

As many as 24 live

cartridges were seized from baggages of two male passengers at

the airport in Pune district of Maharashtra on Thursday, a

police official said.

Both of them have been detained, he said.

A total of 22 live cartridges were found in the

baggage of a 58-year-old passenger, who was scheduled to fly

to Bengaluru in a SpiceJet flight, Vimantal police station's

senior inspector Dilip Shinde said.

"After the detection, the passenger was handed over to

the airport police. Our investigation has revealed that he has

a valid license of a .32 caliber pistol," he said.

The man told the police that since he was in a hurry,

he forgot to remove the cartridges from the bag before heading

to the airport, he said, adding that a probe was underway.

In another incident, two live cartridges of a .9 mm

weapon were seized from the baggage of another 61-year-old

passenger, who was slated to travel to New Delhi in an IndiGo

flight, he said.

The passenger, hailing from Delhi, worked as a

locomotive driver with the Railways, Shinde said.

"He claimed that he had come to Pune to visit his son,

who works as an IT engineer here. He has also said that he

does not have any valid gun license," he said.

"We are questioning him about how the two cartridges

came into his bag. He is also checking with his son and other

family members about it," Shinde said.

The two cartridges found in the bag of Delhi-bound

passenger will be sent for ballistic analysis, and if they are

found to be genuine and the passenger fails to produce a valid

gun license, a case will be registered against him, the

official said.