In yet another major seizure, 156 missiles, 63 of them live, rockets and bombs were on Sunday found in a drain in an industrial area in Secunderabad area of Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahar district, 17km from Ghaziabad.
District Magistrate Abhishek Singh told PTI that two steel companies -- Saini Steel and Gangeshwar Steel - are situated in the industrial area and it is suspected that they might have left these explosives in the drain.
A scavenger found the explosives and immediately informed the police. Fire brigade and bomb disposal squad personnel retrieved the explosives.
The district magistrate said most of the munitions are rusted but have explosive content.
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The two companies had already been raided by police a week ago and further legal action would be taken against them.
Singh said warned that action would be taken if any explosive material relating to metal scrap was found in the district.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav on Sunday said the state government would seek the Centre's help, if required, for probing the seizure of munitions in metal scraps in some parts of the state.
"The state government has initiated a serious investigation into the seizures and stern action will be taken against those found guilty," he told newspersons in state capital Lucknow.
His remarks came a day after Union minister of State for Home Sri Prakash Jaiswal said the Centre was ready to launch a probe by its agencies if the state government made such a request.
Meanwhile in neighbouring Rajasthan, at least 20 live pieces of ammunition and huge empty shells were unearthed on Sunday during a search operation at the Balaji Industry in Jaipur, where 90 mortars and rockets were found on Saturday night, a senior police official said.
Tonnes of scrap buried underground, probably along with live and empty shells of ammunition pieces, was being dug out and searched by the cops and the factory's workers, Superintendent of Police (North) Anand Srivastava told PTI.
Army ordinance personnel were expected to assist the civil administration.
A case under sections 336 and 286 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 5/9 of the Explosive Act has been registered against the company, sources said.
The factory owner who reportedly imported metal scrap from Gulf countries is out of Jaipur and would be arriving shortly to face interrogation by police.
The company gets about one tonne of imported metal scrap every month. Whenever ammunition items are found in the scrap, they are buried to avoid explosions.
But since the owner failed to report explosives in scrap to the police, he is liable to be prosecuted, police sources said.
Meanwhile, army officials are checking the explosives and arranging to defuse them. Other security agencies have also been informed.
Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has sought a report about the haul of explosives and the police have started search operations at other factories importing metal scrap.
