Mumbai
MumbaiReuters

An Israeli man, 23, was arrested in Mumbai Airport at week's end after a bullet was found in his personal bag when he was about to board a flight to Nepal.

He is in jail and efforts are being made to free him.

The young man's father told Arutz Sheva Saturday night that his son routinely carries a personal handgun and that one of the bullets must have fallen out of the cartridge inside the bag when he was still in Israel.

The father was notified by the Israel Police on Friday that his son was arrested. The Israel Police's representative in Mumbai asked him to obtain certain an approval that his son had no criminal record in order to assist in freeing him. However, he said, when he asked the Israel Police in Israel to give him the approval, he encountered a lack of good will.

The distraught family is receiving assistance from the Chabad representatives in Mumbai. The Chabad rabbi helped him hire a local lawyer quickly by lending him 2,000 dollars, which the father will repay in a few days' time. This action saved time, because wiring funds to Mumbai is a time consuming process.

The son, meanwhile, was remanded to 48 hours of custody without being represented by a lawyer.

The father asked to convey a message to authorities in India. "If India wants Israeli travelers, it should be aware of the security situation in Israel. My son has a license to carry a gun, like thousands of Israelis. A bullet can be forgotten inside a bag – this can happen. There is no need to make these youths undergo sorrow, abuse and humiliation."

The father also had a pointed question for Israeli authorities. "How can it be," he asked, "that time after time, young Israelis pass through Ben Gurion Airport with bags that contain a forgotten bullet or two, without the bullets being discovered by the scanning device and without being questioned?"

The Indian lawyer hired by the family told them that he is "a specialist in Israelis who forget bullets in their bags." It appears that the phenomenon of Israelis after military service who come to India with a bullet lodged somewhere in their bags is a common one, said the father.