VIJAYAWADA: The Vijayawada city police recovered five gunny bags of loose parts of rocket from four scrap dealers on Monday.

The long-winding process of transportation of the material, which is used for making rockets, has raised many an eyebrow. According to Commissioner of Police Umesh Sharraf, 55 bags of the material were transported from Ambattur in Tamil Nadu to Vijayawada on August 10, 2005.

The bags, which reached the city on August 13, 2005, were segregated into three parts by M. Srinivasa Rao of Ashoknagar on whose name the consignment was booked.

While 35 bags were sent to Darsi in Prakasam district, 19 were sent to Kandukur in the same district, and one was sent to Tadipatri in Anantapur district.

While the stock was delivered to the addressee concerned (details not known) at Darsi, the stocks sent to Kandukur and Tadipatri remained unclaimed.The Kranthi Transport office at Tadipatri despatched the bags on December 10 to Vijayawada, and the Kandukur branch of the company followed suit on January 9.

The stocks remained unclaimed in the `lost property depot' in Vijayawada until May 24 this year.

As nobody had claimed the bags, the transport company auctioned the stocks.

Four city-based scrap dealers purchased 20 bags, and disposed of the material in 15 bags for recycling of the scrap. Five bags, however remained with them.

On credible information, the city police raided the godowns of scrap dealers on Monday morning and recovered the five bags.

The bags contained metal pipes, couplings, cones, screws, nuts and bolts, a grease pump, a digital thermometer and a digital weighing machine.

Further investigation was on, said Mr. Sharraf.

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