Gelatin sticks seized in Erode district

Gelatin sticks weighing nearly two tonnes have been seized from a lorry near here, police said today.
Acting on a tip-off, the police checked a stationary lorry at Vavikkadai village near Perundurai and found 60 wooden boxes and some gunny bags containing household items and few other things, they said.
As many as 15,600 gelatin sticks were kept in one of the wooden boxes, police said adding the items were meant to be smuggled into Kerala, from Salem.
As the driver was not carrying proper license or receipt for the contraband, all the boxes and the gelatin sticks worth Rs 12 lakhs were confiscated, they said.

A case has been registered under the Explosives Act.
Further investigations are on to ascertain the purpose of the explosive materials, police said.

In another incident, a gelatin stick fitted with a detonator was seized from a government-owned Transport Corporation bus in Sathyamangalam here, yesterday.
The conductor of the bus, which was ready to leave for Kumbakonam, noticed a small box, which contained some electric wires and alerted the police, they said.
Police rushed to the spot and found a gelatin stick fitted with detonator through a wire, in the box.
They seized the same and defused it.
Two persons have been arrested in this connection and investigation is on, police said.