Delhi Police recovers 1,020 live cartridges from metro station, arrests three

New Delhi: Ahead of US President Barack Obama's visit, the special cell of Delhi Police has recovered 1020 live cartridges from near Welcome Metro Station here. Among bullets recovered by the police, 15 were 12-bore rounds, and rest were mix of 9mm and 7.65mm.

The police has arrested three persons in the arms haul case but ruled out any terror angle into the seizure of the cartridges.

The buyer of the cartridges, identified by the police, has not been revealed and it is being said that this is the largest haul of ammunition.

The apprehended persons have been identified as Mohd Imraan, a resident of Sitapur, Sharik, a resident of Meerut, and Faheem, a resident of Uttarakhand. The police is further investigating the three held.

A seven-layer security ring will be thrown around the VVIP enclosure on Rajpath for the Republic Day parade to be witnessed by US President Barack Obama and the airspace over the area would be monitored by a radar to be specially set up.

This will form part of the planned unprecedented ground-to-air security drill that will turn the national capital into an impregnable fortress during the visit of Obama as Chief Guest for the main Republic Day celebrations on January 26 - the first by any American President.

(With PTI inputs)