"No Explosive Content" In Bomb Found In Chandigarh, Says Army's Report

A day after experts from the Army removed a "live" explosive found in a mango garden, the Chandigarh police were informed on Wednesday that there was no explosive content in the bombshell.

Police officials said the bombshell was an obsolete one that was manufactured in the 1960s by the Indian Ordnance Factory.

"Today, we received a detailed report from them (Army) as per which it was not a live explosive. There was no explosive content in this shell.

"After examining the markings on it, the Army officials said that it was manufactured in Indian Ordnance Factory. In the 1960s, such shells were manufactured and to fire these a mounted weapon system like a tank is required," Chandigarh's Senior Superintendent of Police, Manisha Choudhary, told reporters here.

She said these shells are now no longer used by the Army.

"The shell was spotted in the mango garden by a passerby. On preliminary examination, we felt that the Army uses such shells in artillery after which we requested its Western Command to send their expert team to examine the shell," Choudhary said, adding they (Army) had taken it with them on Tuesday for its disposal.

The Army's bomb disposal experts had on Tuesday removed the shell, which was found a day earlier close to the helipad used by Punjab and Haryana chief ministers.

Some officials from the civil administration who reached the spot had termed the shell as a live one.

The area where the shell was discovered lies in Chandigarh, close to the Chandigarh-Punjab border.

The shell was found on Monday in a mango garden on the Nayagaon-Kansal T-point, which is about a kilometre from the helipad and about two kilometres from the official residences of Punjab and Haryana chief ministers.

The police have questioned several people, including many scrap dealers in nearby areas, for clues on how the bomb would have reached the mango garden.

When asked, SSP Choudhary said their (Army authorities') guess was such shells after being fired in training range of the Army are picked up by scrap dealers as they have metal.

There have been cases previously when discarded shells were found here, the SSP said.

"The area is near Chandigarh-Punjab border and we have also informed Punjab authorities," she said.

On Monday, Sanjeev Kohli, nodal officer, disaster management, Chandigarh, had said that when they checked it (bombshell), it was a "live shell".

"It is a matter of investigation how this shell got here," he had said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)