RAMANATHAPURAM
After the district police moved the court seeking direction to destroy the trinitrotoluene (TNT) slabs, recovered from the backyard of a house at Anthoniyarpuram near Thangachimadam, Tiruvadanai District Munsiff-cum-Judicial Magistrate P. Balamurugan checked the explosives at the site on Wednesday.
Mr. Balamurugan, who is in-charge of Rameswaram District Munsiff-cum-Judicial Magistrate Court, verified the explosives with the list given by the police, in the presence of Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) sleuths and Rameswaram Deputy Superintendent of Police M. Magesh. He also took photographs of the 199 TNT slabs.
The Magistrate then checked the ammunition kept at Ramanathapuram Armed Reserve (AR) police godown. The recovered ammunition included 400 rounds for high machine guns (HMGs), 5,500 rounds for medium machine guns (MMGs) and 4,928 rounds for self-loading rifles (SLRs), the police said.
After recovering the explosives and ammunition on Monday night, the police kept the explosives near the site and removed the ammunition to the AR police godown. As the police told the court that it would be highly risky to transport the TNT slabs, the Magistrate inspected the explosives at the site itself.
After the Magistrate passed an order, the Madurai City Police Commissioner would depute the BDDS to destroy the explosives, Superintendent of Police Omprakash Meena said.
The ammunition would be sent to the office of Director General of Police in Chennai, which would take a decision on reusing them on the recommendation of Tamil Nadu Special Police Regimental Centre, Avadi, the SP said.
As the HMGs and the MMGs were used only by the Army, the ammunition could be sent to the army. The ammunition mean for the SLRs could be given to the State police, he added.