NIA files chargesheet against 21 people in Burdwan blast case

KOLKATA: NIA today filed a charge sheet in a special court here against 21 people, including four Bangladeshis, in the Burdwan terror blast case.

The accused, sources said, have been charged for offences relating to terrrorist acts, conspiracy, recruitment, funding and running of terrorist camps, possession of arms and explosives and offences related to forgery, Foreigners Act and Passport Act.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has till now arrested 17 people in this case.

The case pertains to blasts that took place inside a house in West Bengal's Burdwan district on October two last year leaving two persons dead.

With international links surfacing, the central probe agency took over the case from state police a few days after the explosion.

Investigators have found that Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) were being fabricated in the house and later smugged to neighbouring Bangladesh.

NIA had found that members of Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) terror group had established their network in different places like Murshidabad, Nadia, Malda, Birbhum, Burdwan in West Bengal and Barpeta in Assam, Sahibganj and Pakur in Jharkhand.

The agency had also claimed that senior members of JMB had established terrorist training centres and bomb-making units in Beldanga and Mukim Nagar of Murshidabad, Nanur of Birbhum and Khagragarh and Simulia of Burdwan district.