2 Ordnance Factory Officers Suspended After Recovery Of 12 Mortar Shells In Wagon At Odisha Station

balangir: Two officers of the ordnance factory at Badmal in Balangir district were suspended two days after security personnel of railways recovered 12 mortar shells from a wagon of a goods train at Kantabanji railway station.

Sources said the TNT (trinitrotoluene) shells were from the 2015 batch and used in the Bofors gun.

Following the recovery, ADG (Railway) Arun Bothra told that the 12 shells belong to the Ordnance Factory Badmal (OFBL) in Saintala.

Investigation by RPF later revealed that Central Ammunition Depot at Pulgaon in Maharashtra sent a consignment of 25 containers of 155 mm mortar shells via the goods train which arrived at Badmal station on Friday. The train was then taken to the exchange yard of the ordnance factory in Badmal at 6 pm and released at 3 pm on Saturday after unloading the containers. The mortar shells were detected during loading rice bags at the tower wagon siding in Kantabanji at 10.40 am on Sunday.

The station master of Kantabanji then informed to Govt Railway Police and the Kantabanji police station. Following which, ordnance factory officers reached Kantabanji at 4 pm and produced the documents for the mortar shells (155 mm) booked from Pulgaon to Badmal. Subsequently, the shells were unloaded and handed over to the ordnance factory staff in the presence of local police and GRP, TOI reported, quoting official sources.

The sources further stated that a container of 12 shells was left inside the wagon by the staff on duty and called it a human error. The Ordnance authorities said that an inquiry into the incident has been ordered, the report added.