Blast damages residential building in eastern Kolkata

Kolkata: A blast in a residential area on the eastern fringes of Kolkata partially damaged a building, with police suspecting that explosives used in making crude bombs might have been behind the incident.

Although no one was injured in the explosion, the incident in the Dakshin Narayanpur area of Rajarhat on Friday evening caused panic among residents of the building and in the neighbourhood.

Police on Saturday said one person has been detained for questioning, while the prime suspect, Md Shamim alias Salim, a resident of the Kamarhati area of North 24 Parganas district, was on the run.


Personnel of the Bengal fire services department, the special task force of the state police and the bomb squad reached the spot on Saturday to sanitise the affected building. Sources said an NIA team is likely to visit the site for inquiry.

"We have recovered two bombs, but it cannot be ascertained whether they are live or inert. We will defuse them as per protocol," a police officer said.

Remains of multiple crude bombs and raw material for making explosives were recovered from the blast site, police said.

Zulfikar Ansari, the owner of the building where the blast occurred, said Salim had recently approached him through a local broker to rent a room in the building, which houses other tenants as well.

Although no written tenancy agreement was signed between the two parties, Ansari had granted Salim access to the property for the purpose of cleaning up the space.

"The tenant was supposed to start living at the property from Monday. He was introduced to me by a local broker, Shahenshah, connected to the BJP. I did not grant the tenant full access to the property until I drew up the tenancy agreement and informed the police about his stay.

"I only allowed him to visit the place to clean up the room. The blast happened even before I could get those formalities done," Ansari claimed.

Police have detained Shahenshah to gain information about the suspect who is absconding.

CCTV footage from inside the building revealed that the blast took place at around 8 pm on Friday, minutes after a local youth placed a white jute bag inside the room that was supposed to be rented.

The youth told the police that the bag was handed to him by Salim, who handed him the room key and asked him to keep it in his room, saying it contained food items.