Plot to blow up rival’s shop with time bomb busted in Rajkot

Rajkot: A fire in a toy that sparked a blaze in a mobile shop in the Gundawadi area of Rajkot has turned out to be a conspiracy to blow up the shop using a time bomb.
Investigation into the incident that happened in the shop at around 2:45am on April 6 revealed that three people had plotted to destroy the shop over business rivalry.
The police arrested three Shravan Chaudhary (22), his brother-in-law Kalaram Chaudhary (25), and the woman Dolly Padhariya (32) who left the bag with a toy stuffed with explosives in the shop. They were booked under IPC sections 436, 286, 120 (b) and the Explosive Substances Act.
The entire conspiracy was planned in a way that it looked like an accident. Mobile phones and accessories worth Rs5 lakh were gutted in the incident.
Preliminary investigation suggested that a spark from the battery in a toy resulted in the fire.
Based on technical surveillance and human intelligence, police found that Dolly, who left the bag in the shop, did not return to collect it. During questioning, she spilled the beans and said that her friend and co-accused Kalaram had given her the bag saying that there was a voice recorder inside and they wanted to listen to the conversations of the mobile shop owner Bhavaram Chaudhary.
Dolly told the police that she returned to the mobile accessories shop owned by Shravan and Kalaram on Dhebar Road.
Bharat Basiya, assistant commissioner of police, crime branch said, “Kalaram and Shravan had taken the shop on rent. Bhavaram wanted this shop and he was ready to pay high rent to the owner. The broker asked Shravan and Kalaram to either pay more rent or vacate the shop saying that another person was ready to pay more.”
Dolly, unaware of the blast at night, went to temple town Dwarka where she heard the news about the explosion and fire in the shop where she left the bag and that the police were searching for a woman forgot it there.
She contacted Kalaram and told her she would go to meet the police but he did not allow her to do so. When she returned to Rajkot, Kalaram confessed to her that there was a time bomb inside the parcel and scared her saying that she would also go behind bars if she approached the police.