The Hindu : National : U.S. nationals sent to correctional home in Siliguri

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U.S. nationals sent to correctional home in Siliguri

Special Correspondent

They were tourists from California
Plea for bail rejected

KOLKATA: U.S. nationals Monica Bond and her daughter Heather, detained after 9 mm cartridges were found in their baggage during a security check at West Bengal’s Bagdogra airport on Monday, are now in the Siliguri Special Correctional Home.

A senior official of the U.S. Consul General, Kolkata, visited the women at the correctional home on Wednesday, their lawyer Abhaypada Chatterjee told The Hindu over telephone from Siliguri.

Tourists from California, they were arrested under the Arms Act, 1959, and remanded to judicial custody for three days by the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court in Siliguri on Tuesday.

“Documents sought from the U.S. Consul General’s office say the women have no criminal record,” said Mr. Chatterjee, whose prayer for bail to the accused was rejected by the court.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the cartridges were of American origin, Rahul Srivastava, Superintendent of Police, Darjeeling, said.

“It is unlikely that they were procured by the women during their stay in Darjeeling from where they were returning … There was no valid document allowing them to carry the cartridges and there was a gun licence that had expired. Moreover, there were discrepancies in the statements they made to the police,” he said.

“The women were on their way to Delhi from where they were to catch a flight back to the U.S. via Taiwan on Wednesday. They had spent about five days in Darjeeling on arrival from the capital,” Mr. Srivastava said.

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