Magna Era has been supplying bulletproof jackets to police force of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.

“The delay in procuring jackets by Maharashtra Police is that it has been sitting on the proposal for too long,” he said.

While admitting there had been too long a gap in purchasing the bulletproof vests, Tarawade pointed to a paucity of good quality jackets for the delay.

According to Tarawade, the state police get the jackets tested at Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory (TBRL) of the Defence Research and Development Organisation laboratory in Chandigarh and some of the samples tried out by them had failed the quality tests.

Ravindra Sengaonkar, DCP (special branch), Pune Police said the shortage of bulletproof jackets was a reality, but at the same time they could not go in for sub-standard equipment.

Meanwhile, these bulletproof vests that cost around Rs 25,000 per piece, has been seeing an unprecedented rise in demand, even before the Mumbai terror strike.

The rise in demand from civilians has come mostly from politicians and builders, said More.

Bulletproof jackets are sold after police verification to ensure they do not fall into the hands of the wrong persons, especially Naxalites, he added.

There are some seven manufacturing companies in India, each with a capacity to turn out 60,000 jackets per year.

Various international companies from Israel, China, United States, Taiwan and Europe already have their footprint in the country, though they much costlier than the Made in India versions.