A passenger with ammunition in a bag went through routine airport security procedures, including the X-ray baggage scan, without being caught but an extra pre-boarding check ensured he did not get on the plane.

Mizoram resident Lalma Lalsama Zasai, 40, was carrying two 7.65-mm bullets in a bag that he converted into hand baggage on being told at the Air India check-in counter on Saturday that he was carrying excess luggage.

When he went for security check, the Central Industrial Security Force personnel on duty did not bother to scan that particular bag because it had already gone through the X-ray machine for registered luggage and carried a stamped security tag.

The bag with the bullets would have made it to the 11am Aizawl flight had a third round of checking not been carried out because of the Independence Day red alert.

On being caught, Zasai claimed to be a leader of the ruling Mizo National Front (MNF) in Mizoram. But he had no license with him to carry ammunition.

He was produced in a Barrackpore court on Sunday and granted bail.

The MNF secretary, Lalauaba, denied knowing Zasai. “If he is just a party member, I am not supposed to remember all their names,” he said over phone from Aizawl.

Airport officials admitted that bullets not being detected during the X-ray scan was a security failure, but CISF officials said personnel manning the security check counter could not be blamed for it.

“Since Zasai’s hand baggage had already been scanned at Air India’s X-ray counter and had the strip and security clearance stamp, our personnel did not put it through another X-ray,” one of them said.