File picture of US national William M Hurtubise

Bhubaneswar, Dec. 9: The ballistic report of the bullets seized from US national William M. Hurtubise revealed that the ammunition was produced in the United States.

Police arrested the 27-year-old engineer on September 18 after eight .22mm bullets were found in his possession during a security check at Biju Patnaik Airport.

The ballistic report of the state forensic laboratory revealed that the Federal Cartridge Corporation in the US had manufactured the bullets. When the seizure was made, the police suspected that Hurtubise had procured the bullets locally though the engineer claimed that he had carried the bullets from his country and had a firearm licence.

Earlier, Hurtubise had got bail from a local court on deposit of a cash surety of Rs 50,000. The court had asked the engineer to submit his passport and visa with it. The court had also directed him not to leave the country without its permission.

The engineer’s claim that he had managed to slip through security scanners at Houston, Amsterdam and New Delhi airports still remains a mystery.

“It might be possible that his luggage would not have gone through the scanners in Amsterdam and New Delhi if he had not gone outside the airports during his journey by connecting flights. Similarly, during his exit from Bhubaneswar, his luggage needs not to go through scanners. We are still investigating how he managed to slip through security scanners in the US before boarding his flight,” said a police official.

The Central Industrial Security Force employees had found the bullets in one of his bags during the security check at the airport. However, the security personnel did not find any firearm from his possession.

Hurtubise hailing from Houston in Texas had told the police that he was scheduled to visit Paradip for inspection of a ship engine.

On September 20, a two-member team of the US Citizen Services from the office of the United States’ consulate general in Hyderabad had met the engineer in Jharpada jail. Hurtubise had been lodged in Jharapada jail for more than one month.

The team, consisting of deputy chief of the US Citizen Services Sutton Meagher and staff member Chitra Suman, held talks with Hurtubise for about an hour. Sources said Hurtubise had urged the team members to bail him out at the earliest.

He had also told them that the jail authorities were not treating him well. A jail insider had said the American also complained about the behaviour of the prison employees and mosquitoes in his cell.

Later, the team had met deputy commissioner of police Nitinjeet Singh and held discussions with him on the issue. A senior police official had said: “The team members told us that it was legal to carry ammunition on flights in the US.”