Civil Aviation Minister contradicts Air India on the dummy grenade found on a plane — TIMES NOW (@timesnow) October 4, 2014

Minister Gajapathi Raju confirms a stun grenade was found on the plane — TIMES NOW (@timesnow) October 4, 2014

A TV screenshot of the stun grenade that was found in the plane.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi boarding Air India One.

NEW DELHi: The mystery of the suspicious object found on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's standby aircraft took a curious turn on Saturday after civil aviation minister Gajapathi Raju, contradicting Air India 's statement, said the object found on the place was a stun grenade .A stun grenade, also known as a flash grenade or flashbang, is a non-lethal explosive device used to temporarily disorient an enemy's senses especially in hostage-rescue operations. A stun grenade produces a blinding flash of light and intensely loud "bang" of greater than 170 decibels without causing permanent injury."The grenade may have remained after the mock drill ... It has BSF markings," Raju told reporters at Vizianagaram.The security drill was carried out by National Security Guards between September 24-27 at select airports and aircraft across the country to check the alertness of the crew and others concerned.Terming the incident as "unacceptable", he said though there was no threat to passengers, "there is some failure and this lapse may not be condoned. Corrective measures have to be taken."Following the incident, Air India has suspended the security managers of Mumbai and Hyderabad.Earlier, Air India in a statement said the object found was a plastic wrapper and not a grenade as it was previously reported in the media.Air India statement said: "AI 965 of October 3, 2014, operated on the sector Mumbai-Hyderabad-Jeddah. On landing at Jeddah, cabin crew found a suspicious object and informed the concerned authorities. After screening the aircraft and the object which was found to be a plastic wrapper the Jeddah airport security cleared the aircraft for further operations thereafter.""A committee, under the chairmanship of the joint managing director, Air India and commissioner of security, civil aviation (COSCA) has been formed to investigate the incident. Air India would like to clear that at no point of time was the safety of the passengers or the aircraft compromised," the statement added.The Boeing 747 was kept on standby at IGI Airport , which means it was fully ready to fly out for the Prime Minister in case the Jumbo Jet being used by him developed a snag. According to sources, the aircraft was released for commercial operation when Modi landed here on Thursday night."The B 747 was sent on a Delhi-Mumbai-Hyderabad-Jeddah flight. On reaching Jeddah in the early hours of Saturday (India time), security agencies there found a defused grenade inside the business class of the aircraft. This sensational discovery of a defused bomb on an aircraft kept standby for the Prime Minister has sent everyone in a tizzy," said highly placed sources.