Blast cases rising in West Bengal, over 751 cases reported in 2014-15: CFSL

By Madhuparna Das


KOLKATA: Bhutu Mollah writhes in pain in a state-run hospital in Bengal. The burn injuries the four-year-old boy sustained while playing in a field near his Tarashankar colony in north Kolkata have left him almost immobile. And he doesn't know why.

Bhutu had spotted a ball-like object rolling and had picked it up. Before he could figure out what the object was, it had exploded, leaving him struggling for his life. That fateful day , police recovered two other crude bombs from the field where Mollah and his friends were playing. The August 3 explosion was the most recent in a series blasts that have claimed several lives, including those of minors, and injured thousands in different districts of the state.

Although chief minister Mamata Banerjee claims to have established "rule of law" in Bengal after three decades of Marxist rule, the Central Forensic Science Laboratory ( CFSL) recorded at least 751 cases under the Explosive Substance Act in the state in 2014-15 (till June). In comparison, insurgency-hit Assam and Nagaland recorded about 142 and 200 cases, respectively.

Apart from a rise in cases of political violence, Bengal has witnessed an increase in the number of reported explosions. CFSL data shows it had registered 165 cases of explosion in 2011.

"There has been a phenomenal increase in the number of explosive cases we have been receiving in last 14 month," Priyankar Ghosh, regional director at CFSL, told ET.

According to a senior police official, the bomb-making industry got a boost when politics in Bengal started getting polarised in 2009. He said almost all elections since then have witnessed an increase in the use of explosives.

Such has been the increase in the availability and use of explosives in the state that the CFSL in Kolkata has started a study to map districts that account for the highest number of cases relating to bomb explosions.

A source said central intelligence agencies have now taken up another study on the evolving nature of bombs in Bengal.

"Six years ago, we used to defuse crude bombs where gun powder and other materials were used. But now the bombs have evolved. In Khagragarh blast, we found 43 new chemicals which are banned. In another district, we found a bomb that had several small bombs inside it with splinters. When the bomb detonates, it discharges the smaller ones. The small bomb explodes at far flung areas and releases the sharp nails.This bomb was made to inflict maximum damage," said a bomb expert in the police department.

With bomb explosions being reported almost every day from the bordering districts of Bengal, several central agencies have initiated probe into some of the significant cases.

On May 7, the state witnessed a blast in a nondescript house at Pingla in West Midnapore district that killed 12 people, including nine minors. The minors from Suti, a border village in Murshidabad, were recruited in the bomb-manufacturing unit as "bomb-makers". The Mamata Banerjee government and police claimed that it was a cracker manufacturing unit. However, in a report submitted to the CID three days ago, the CFSL stated that the samples collected from the spot contained potassium chlorate, a highly explosive chemical that is banned in India. The CFSL has also mentioned that the house had a huge stock of the banned chemical which is not used to make fire-crackers.

A week after the Pingla incident, a low-intensity blast was reported on a local train in North 24 Paragana district which injured at least 11 people. In its report, the forensic laboratory said it was crude bomb that went off when two anti-social elements were scuffling inside the train. The case has now been taken up by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

In October, 2014, the state witnessed the unfolding of one of the most horrifying terror trails. It was triggered by an accidental blast at a house at Kharagarh in Burdwan district.At least 54 samples were collected from the spot and the agencies are now probing the evolved process of bomb-making.

Following the Khagragarh incident, the Enforce Directorate registered six FIRs (first information reports) clubbing 12 cases of explosives collected from different districts to trace the money trail behind the industry .