Pulgaon/Nagpur: Defective anti-tank mines leaking TNT, a powerful explosive material, and stored for the last nine years in a shed at the Central Ammunition Depot in Pulgaon may have triggered the explosion during a fire last Tuesday that killed 19 people, including two Army officers, highly placed sources said.
The faulty mines were stored at the depot despite the Comptroller and Auditor General warning in a report last year that 102,805 anti-tank mines, worth Rs 47.29 crore and rejected due to manufacturing defects, were stored in the 16 ammunition depots across the country.
On the day of the fire in Pulgaon, the defective ammunition that triggered the blast was earmarked as “segregated” and kept separately in Shed 192 that stored a total of 22,000 ND Mark-1 anti-tank mines weighing 330 metric tonnes, said sources. The cause of the fire, which is believed to have started at this shed, is being probed by the army.
