The three Italians, who have been detained by the special cell of Delhi police on charges of carrying live ammunition inside Radisson hotel here have told the interrogators that the cartridges recovered from the hotel didn’t belong to them, police sources said.
A 52-year-old Italian national, Giulio Ponetto and his two Italian friends Giovanni Ceccomello, 47 and Donato d’ Angelo, 42 had checked into the hotel on Monday at 1 am and 24 live cartridges were recovered from the room of Ponetto following which he was detained at Mumbai airport on Wednesday.
His two associates were picked up from a hotel in Pune and brought to Delhi by a special team of south Delhi police on Thursday. The matter was transferred to special cell of Delhi police.
The special cell sources revealed that the three Italians are feigning ignorance and have told the interrogators that they were unaware of the cartridges that were recovered from a room last occupied by Ponetto. Deputy commissioner of south Delhi police, H.G.S. Dhaliwal had told reporters on Thursday that the “bullet marking” was seen in an X-ray image of a bag being carried by the three Italians as they checked into the hotel on Monday.
“We are still questioning them and it is not clear whether the bullets recovered from the hotel were present in their baggage. We will conduct forensic analysis of their baggage,” a senior police official said.