Explosive seizure: Dealer in silicon powder held
Dwaipayan Ghosh, Monotosh Chakraborty | TNN | Updated: Mar 13, 2019, 11:16 IST
The mini truck ferrying 10 quintals of explosives was intercepted at Talah bridge.KOLKATA: The Kolkata Police special task force (STF) on Monday arrested explosive dealer Sukanta Sahu from Basta in Balasore district in Odisha in connection to the seizure of 10 quintals of explosives from a mini truck at the Tala bridge on March 9. Sahu reportedly had no permission from the local district magistrate to sell potassium nitrate.
“Sahu did possess papers to sell certain fertilizers, but potassium nitrate is not one of them,” said a senior officer. But more importantly, the police claimed, Sahu also traded in the highly explosive silicon powder. “Raids are being carried out in the Vizag area,” said an officer.
Sahu is the fourth major arrest in this case. Before him, Rabiul Islam from Malikapur in North 24 Parganas, was arrested for buying the explosives in Bengal. An interrogation revealed Islam joined the illegal firecracker-manufacturing business three years ago and that his association with Sahu was pretty recent. The STF has launched a search operation across West Midnapore for the middleman between Sahu and Islam. “Though Sahu has no crime record, this middleman has a long criminal history and is the fulcrum of the entire operation. His arrest will unravel how the explosives could make the way into enter Bengal from Odisha. He is also a lead to Sahu’s contacts among criminals in Bengal. We will question Sahu about the quantity of the explosives ordered from him in the run up to the elections,” said an officer.
At Kultali in the Sunderbans, a large arms factory was busted at a remote village during a joint raid by the Baruipur special operations group (SOG) and the local cops early on Tuesday. Factory owner Abu Kahar Laskar and his son Abu Roup Laskar were arrested. The father-son duo initially tried to convince the villagers to resist the cops but some residents refused to listen to the two. Instead, these locals, made the Laskars unlock the door to the room. The police found a large cache of arms, along with arms manufacturing equipment, stored inside. Among the weapons seized were three single-barrel guns, three one-shotters, two unfinished short guns, 146 rounds of 12 bore ammunition and 55 rounds of empty cartridges.
Baruipur SP Rashid Munir Khan said, “The father and the son had been in the business for two years. To mislead locals, they put up four embroidery machines outside the factory, as front for the illegal arms manufacturing unit. We have found three sophisticated German-made guns, each costing about Rs 5 lakh. We are investigating from where they got those, who supplied them and whom were they meant for.”
“Sahu did possess papers to sell certain fertilizers, but potassium nitrate is not one of them,” said a senior officer. But more importantly, the police claimed, Sahu also traded in the highly explosive silicon powder. “Raids are being carried out in the Vizag area,” said an officer.
Sahu is the fourth major arrest in this case. Before him, Rabiul Islam from Malikapur in North 24 Parganas, was arrested for buying the explosives in Bengal. An interrogation revealed Islam joined the illegal firecracker-manufacturing business three years ago and that his association with Sahu was pretty recent. The STF has launched a search operation across West Midnapore for the middleman between Sahu and Islam. “Though Sahu has no crime record, this middleman has a long criminal history and is the fulcrum of the entire operation. His arrest will unravel how the explosives could make the way into enter Bengal from Odisha. He is also a lead to Sahu’s contacts among criminals in Bengal. We will question Sahu about the quantity of the explosives ordered from him in the run up to the elections,” said an officer.
At Kultali in the Sunderbans, a large arms factory was busted at a remote village during a joint raid by the Baruipur special operations group (SOG) and the local cops early on Tuesday. Factory owner Abu Kahar Laskar and his son Abu Roup Laskar were arrested. The father-son duo initially tried to convince the villagers to resist the cops but some residents refused to listen to the two. Instead, these locals, made the Laskars unlock the door to the room. The police found a large cache of arms, along with arms manufacturing equipment, stored inside. Among the weapons seized were three single-barrel guns, three one-shotters, two unfinished short guns, 146 rounds of 12 bore ammunition and 55 rounds of empty cartridges.
Baruipur SP Rashid Munir Khan said, “The father and the son had been in the business for two years. To mislead locals, they put up four embroidery machines outside the factory, as front for the illegal arms manufacturing unit. We have found three sophisticated German-made guns, each costing about Rs 5 lakh. We are investigating from where they got those, who supplied them and whom were they meant for.”
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