An unmanned aerial vehicle crashed over the forest along Sarti village on the Dalhousie road in Dhar block near here during a Thursday-morning trial sortie.
The villagers who saw the machine fall off the sky suspected it to be a toy fitted with spy cameras and launched from a neighboring country probably, so they informed police, which took the gadget into possession.
Meanwhile, the officials of the company who had provided the army with this machine reached the spot with soldiers after tracking the UAV with the help of the global positioning system (GPS) and collected it from station house officer (SHO) Bharat Bhushan.
"The army had launched the machine from Chamror Pattan village. After proper inquiries, we handed it over to lieutenant colonel Vineet Dhanotia," said deputy superintendent of police (rural) Manoj Kumar. Defence spokesperson Naresh Vig denied he had any information.