US cop detained at Delhi airport for carrying bullets in luggage

New Delhi: A New York Police Department officer was arrested and charged under Arms Act after three bullets were found in his luggage, police said on Friday. It was reported that the officer Manny Encarnacion, 49, was arrested in New Delhi on March 11 after he arrived on a Lufthansa Airlines flight from New York, Deputy Commissioner of Police Airport Security M I Haider said.

"Three 9mm bullets were found in his baggage. He was booked under Arms Act," Haider said.

Under India's Arms Act of 1959, Encarnacion could be punishable by anywhere from three to seven years.

Encarnacion was produced in court the very same day and was granted bail, police said. However, he has been barred from leaving India until his next court date, April 19.

Encarnacion accidentally left the bullets in his bag when he was visiting India to meet his newly-wed wife Vida, an Iranian student, a report in the New York Post said.

Meanwhile, the New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said he is "troubled" by the detention of the police official and hoped that he would be treated fairly by Indian officials.

"Obviously we want to know a lot more about what's going on," he said at a law enforcement event in New York when asked about the Encarnacion's case.

"But so far, from what I'm hearing, I'm troubled by it and I want to make sure we're providing support to him and make sure he's not being treated unfairly," de Blasio added.

New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said the department is "staying very engaged with that issue in India...We are certainly concerned for that officer and for his wife who's there with him in India at this time."

"But that's a process that's moving slowly in the India justice system but we're staying informed," he said.

Meanwhile, according to the New York Post’s report a security officer at the airport sarcastically said, “You guys like to strip-search our diplomats.”

The newspaper reported, that the officer's remark was a clear reference to the Dec 12 arrest and strip search of Devyani Khobragade, India's then deputy consul general in New York "over visa fraud".