An official inspecting the blast site in Kolkata
NEW DELHI: Kolkata Police on Saturday detained an individual in connection with an explosion that partially damaged a residential building on the city’s eastern fringes, with investigators suspecting the blast was caused by explosives used in making crude bombs.The blast occurred in the Dakshin Narayanpur area of Rajarhat on Friday evening. No injuries were reported in the incident.Police identified the prime suspect as Md Shamim alias Salim, a resident of Kamarhati in North 24 Parganas district, who remains absconding. The detained person, Shahenshah, is a local broker allegedly linked to the ruling BJP.Building owner Zulfikar Ansari claimed that Salim had recently approached him through Shahenshah to rent a room on the premises.”The tenant was introduced to me by a local broker, Shahenshah, connected to the BJP. I had not granted him full access to the property or completed the tenancy agreement and police verification. I only allowed him to clean the room, and the blast occurred before those formalities could be completed,” Ansari alleged.Police are questioning Shahenshah to gather information about the absconding suspect.Meanwhile, personnel from the West Bengal Fire and Emergency Services, the state police’s Special Task Force (STF) and the bomb squad reached the site on Saturday to sanitise the affected building. According to sources, a National Investigation Agency (NIA) team is likely to visit as part of the probe, indicating that investigators have not ruled out a possible terror angle.Police recovered two bombs from the site, though it was not immediately clear whether they were live or inert.”We will defuse them as per protocol,” PTI quoted a police officer as saying.Investigators also recovered remnants of several crude bombs and raw materials used to make explosives from the building.CCTV footage from the building showed the blast occurred around 8 pm on Friday, minutes after a local youth placed a white jute bag inside the room. During questioning, the youth told investigators that Salim had handed him the room key and asked him to leave the bag there, claiming it contained food items.
