Mangaluru: CISF personnel at the Mangaluru International Airport detained a 63-year-old man, who was found to be in possession of 15 live bullets in his baggage on Saturday, May 5.

The detained, Ismail is a Nellyady resident and businessman by profession. He was at the airport to take a flight to Nagpur, when a routine check found that he was carrying the bullets in his bag albeit without the requisite documents. He was later handed over to Bajpe police station.

Further investigations by the police revealed that Ismail possessed a gun license and that he had deposited his 0.32 revolver at Beltangady police station on April 4 in light of the code of conduct. However, an absent-minded Ismail had forgotten to remove the bullets from his bag, leading to a small chaotic situation at the airport on the day PM Modi was to arrive in the city for election campaigning.

Since it was established that the incident was merely due to oversight and had no links to the Prime Minister’s visit, the police released Ismail later.