Recovery of bullets on bus: probe expanded to Karnataka

The police have extended to Karnataka the investigation into the discovery of 150 rounds of country-made gun ammunition on a bus operating on the Kannur-Virajpet route on Thursday evening.

During a routine vehicle check at the Kootupuzha excise check-post on the Kerala-Karnataka border, the bullets were found abandoned without an identified owner. The Iritty police sought the assistance of a dog squad, which identified a few passengers.

After initial verification, while the other passengers were allowed to leave after giving address and phone number, two suspects, a native of Ulikkal and a Virajpet resident, were questioned.

An attempt of the police to review CCTV footage from the Virajpet bus stand immediately after the discovery did not yield results. A follow-up investigation was conducted at Virajpet on Friday. The bus’ internal surveillance system was also of no avail as its cameras had been operational only until March 13.