Andhra cops looking at hand-held device in fight against terrorism

After Saturday’s blasts in Hyderabad, the Andhra Pradesh police are looking to arm themselves with a device that uses Raman spectroscopy...

After Saturday’s blasts in Hyderabad, the Andhra Pradesh police are looking to arm themselves with a device that uses Raman spectroscopy to identify explosives, narcotics, and other dangerous chemicals in less than 30 seconds.

First Defence, manufactured by US firm Ahura, will be demonstrated to the director-general of police and other top officers on Tuesday, said Anup Gulati, Managing Director of Security Shoppe, the sole distributor of the device for India.

“We received a request from top police officials in Andhra Pradesh and are going there tomorrow to make a presentation to the Director General of Police in Cyberabad,” he said.

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Already, First Defence is used by the police, customs agencies, anti-narcotics agents, and anti-terror agencies in the US, UK, Japan, Finland, Australia and the Netherlands.

The device weighs 1.8 kg, making it conveniently portable and is calibrated to identify up to a thousand chemicals, even if they are present in minute quantities.

It can detect all narcotics and explosives, and chemicals commonly used in bomb-making, such as ammonium nitrate, acetone, hydrogen peroxide, fuel oil, sulphuric acid.

In May, the device was demonstrated to the Special Protection Group and officials of Parliament House, which has been the target of a terror attack.

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Gulati said his firm was “likely” to get its first purchase order from the Parliament House soon, but things were at discussion stage with the SPG.

The device is priced at Rs 20 lakh.