Maharashtra police returns 1,430 bulletproof jackets after they fail AK-47 bullet test
Representational Image
The Maharashtra Police have returned 1,430 bulletproof jackets they received following the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai after they failed the AK-47 bullet test during trials.
The 1,430 were a part of a total consignment of 4,600 bulletproof jackets procured by the state police.
“We have sent back more than 1,400 bulletproof jackets to the manufacturer as they did not pass our test with AK-47 bullets,” Additional DGP (Procurement and Coordination) V.V. Laxminarayana said.
The jackets returned to a Kanpur-based manufacturing firm were from three different batches.
The department had ordered 5,000 bullet-proof vests from the company, which also provides such jackets to other Central security forces, for Rs. 17 crore, but received 4,600 pieces after factoring in Customs duty and other charges.
During the trials conducted at the Chandigarh-based Central Forensic Science Laboratory, only around 3,000 jackets passed the test. The rest of the 1,430 jackets were rejected as AK-47 bullets pierced through them during the tests.
“We have asked the manufacturer to replace the 1,430 jackets with a fresh stock. There will be no compromise on the quality and standards of the bulletproof jackets and we will take a delivery from the same manufacturer after testing those bulletproof jackets again,” an official told PTI.
A major controversy about the quality of bulletproof jackets broke out after the death of ATS chief Hemant Karkare in the 2008 terror attacks.
Karkare was seen putting on the bulletproof vest in the last visuals, before the jeep he was traveling in was attacked in south Mumbai.
