A 52-year-old Italian national, Mr Giulio Ponetto, was held at Mumbai airport attempting to catch a flight to Munich, while two of his Italian friends, Mr Giovanni Ceccomello, 47, and Mr Donato d’Angelo, 42, and two Indian associates were picked up from a Pune hotel on Thursday in connection with the finding of live ammunition and empty pistol magazines in a New Delhi hotel room.
The Italians had arrived in the national capital from Milan.
The live ammunition was recovered from the air-conditioning duct of a room occupied by one of the Italians at Radisson Hotel, located near New Delhi’s IGI Airport, on Monday evening. All five are reportedly employees of a multinational company. The Delhi police has registered a case against them under the Arms Act.
The police recovered 24 live cartridges of .357 bore, two empty magazines and two springs from the hotel. Delhi police sources said the deatained Indian nationals, identified as Mr Rajesh Sethia and Mr Sagaraj Suri, detained by the police, have not yet been charged.