Cops ask postal dept staff to be careful while handling parcels

Cops ask postal dept staff to be careful while handling parcels

Pune Police have asked the postal department to be careful and alert while handling ‘suspicious looking parcels’ as they can be stopped and investigated at the place of their origin. Parcels like the ones sent at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and Pune University’s journalism department could have even exploded as they contained live detonators, police said.

It’s been four days since FTII received an India Post parcel containing a live detonator, another ‘explosive like substance’ and a threat letter. Two days later, the journalism department of SPPU received an identical package threatening the institute administration and others of dire consequences if they invited Jawaharlal Nehru University students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar.

“We are closely working with the postal department and their senior officials are helping us find the source of the parcels. So far, we have not been able to locate the place or the post office from where these parcels originated,” said Sudhir Hiremath, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Pune.

We have inspected CCTV footage of major post offices in the city. It’s a difficult task because each post office has at least six deposit boxes, and so the mischief maker could have used any of these, especially one which is not covered by any CCTV camera,” Hiremath added. He further said that all police officials have been instructed to remain alert and flag suspicious looking parcels.

“There are some signs that can show that there’s something amiss in a parcel. For example, the FTII parcel which would require only one Rs 10 stamp, was stamped with four. The miscreant could have done it because the seal on the stamps has much less readability than plain paper. If not carefully handled, the detonators in these parcels could have exploded. So we have asked postal employees to be careful,” Hiremath said.

Pune Police Commissioner Rashmi Shukla reiterated that there is a strong possibility that the parcel originated locally. “Prima facie it looks like it originated locally. Several teams of Pune police are investigating it,” she said.