2 military-grade aircraft launching gears land at Mundra

New Delhi, Dec 25 (IANS) Two military-grade aircraft launching gears weighing 10790.90 kg shipped from the US mysteriously landed in "empty" containers at Mundra port in Gujarat on December 20. The investigating agencies are clueless how these came to India.

Security sources said the military grade aircraft launching gears found at the Mundra port are manufactured by only two corporate giants, Boeing (based in the US) and Airbus (headquartered in Europe).

The shipment came from the US, sources said.

Sources said prime facie it appears that it is an attempt to smuggle military grade aircraft launching gears in India or a matter of corporate espionage.

Sources stated that earlier there have been a few cases where Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and a few corporate companies ordered spare parts and even machines from the US and these went missing and were never traced.

"These two military-grade aircraft launching gears were shipped from New York port on November 8. The consignment was booked by US-based company DHL Global Forwarding and was meant for Royal Saudi Land Forces," said a senior officer in Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs.

IANS has reviewed the copy of the shipment ordered from the US.

The aircraft launching gear was shipped for an address: Prince Sultan Road, HWY 156 Jizan Saudi Arabia.

The Kyoto Express ship, owned by a carrier owned by Hapag-Lloyd Aktiengesellschaft, was carrying the consignment.

The consignment was not offloaded at Jeddah port and came to Mundra in Gujarat, and surprisingly, the two containers were marked empty, sources said.

The vessel had docked at five ports, including Pakistan's Karachi, and came to Mundra port and dropped hundreds of empty containers. While checking all the empty containers, which were being shifted to the yard, the customs officials found these containers "tagged empty" but contained aircraft launching gears.