Maharajganj: A hand grenade was found during the excavation work for a pond under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) at Gopalpur village of Uttar Pradesh's Maharajganj district on Friday, police said.
The incident came to light at Gopalpur village of Farenda area of Maharajganj. An official said that under the MGNREGA scheme, work was going on to beautify the pond near the primary school in Gopalpur village with dozens of laborers busy in the excavation work with shovels and baskets. While the workers were digging out the soil from the pond, they stumbled upon a hard metallic object. As the labourers lifted the object with a shovel, it turned out to be an old and rusted hand grenade leaving the labourers in panic, an official said.
The workers ran for their lives and informed the village head, who in turn called the Farenda police informing them about the matter. On receiving information from the village head, Farenda police reached the spot and took the hand grenade into possession. Police officials later called the bomb disposal squad to defuse the bomb.
SP Somendra Meena said that the hand grenade is inoperative, yet as a precaution, the bomb disposal squad was asked to investigate and completely deactivate it. It was not immediately clear as to how the hand grenade ended up inside the village pond. Further investigation into the case is going on.
Meanwhile, pictures of the hand grenade are being widely shared. In the pictures, the hand grenade can be seen covered in mud with the safety pin clearly visible on the top of the grenade.
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