Three low-intensity blasts in parts of Bengal
Three low-intensity explosions rocked the state on Thursday at a time when two central agencies — the National Investigation Agency and the National Security Guard — are probing the October 2 blast in Burdwan.kolkata Updated: Oct 17, 2014 02:06 IST
Three low-intensity explosions rocked the state on Thursday at a time when two central agencies — the National Investigation Agency and the National Security Guard — are probing the October 2 blast in Burdwan.
The biggest explosion took place at a bidi factory-cum-godown at Basudebpur in Murshidabad district when 200 crude bombs kept in three containers went off. The incident took place at 2.30am on Thursday.
Such was the impact of the blast that a large portion of the factory caved in besides shattering window panes of neighbouring houses. Jagannath Chowdhury, the former Jangipur sub-division president of the Trinamool Congress, owns the godown.
“The new Trinamool Jangipur sub-division president Emani Biswas and his close aide, Habibur Rahaman, can’t tolerate me since I keep on protesting their illegal activities. I think Emani, Habibur and their gang used gelatin sticks and explosives to damage the factory and malign me,” Jagannath Chowdhury claimed.
“Chief minister Mamata Banerjee removed Chowdhury before the Lok Sabha polls. He and his son had stocked explosives in the factory to unleash terror in Basudebpur. Accidentally, some of the bombs went off. The allegation against us is baseless,” Biswas said.
“Chowdhury has lodged a police complaint. We have started a probe. Some crude bombs were found at the explosion site,” Murshidabad SP C Sudhakar said.
Locals said a few years ago Chowdhury gave a portion of his house on rent to Dhiren Jain, a resident of Shillong, for the bidi factory. “Around eight years ago, I gave the factory to Jain on rent. There were two bidi factories, Joy Bidi and Assam Bidi,” Chowdhury said.
In another incident on Wednesday night, three people were injured when a crude bomb went off at a house at Bhimnagar-Hatichapa village in Malda district. Locals said some people were trying to remove the crude bombs from the house of Jiyaul Sheikh when the explosion took place. While locals claimed three people sustained splinter injuries, the police said it could trace none of the injured.
The third blast took place in the house of Jagdish Mondal at Basanti in South 24-Paragans. Mondal was seriously injured and has been admitted to a hospital.
In a previous incident, six people had been injured when a bomb exploded at Bishnupur in South 24-Parganas on October 12. Locals alleged that the police hushed up the matter and described it as a gas cylinder blast. The blast also damaged a three-storey building.