Duo assembles crude bomb at home in Antop Hill, arrested after it goes off accidentally
The accused were daily wage workers hailing from West Bengal (Inset Picture Courtesy: Mumbai Mirror)
Two persons, including a minor, were arrested from Mumbai’s Antop Hill area after a crude bomb they were assembling went off unexpectedly on Sunday afternoon.
According to a crime branch official, the bomb was packed in a tin box and contained potassium nitrate obtained from four ‘sutli’ (twine) firecrackers. The makers had also added glass pieces, ball-bearings, and nails to it.
The neighbours heard a loud noise when the bomb went off inside their house, following which they alerted the police. The accused had moved to a shanty located at Noora Bazar locality of Antop Hill’s Bangalpura area just last week.
Police identified the two accused as Azrul Sheikh (22) and a 16-year-old minor, both daily wage workers hailing from West Bengal.
“The two accused made a bomb from potassium nitrate powder obtained from four sutli bombs. They added glass pieces and nails to it. They had bought a packet of sutli bombs and after bursting six of them, used the other four to assemble this bomb,” said Dilip Sawant, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Detection).
Sheikh sustained injuries when the bomb went off.
The accused were reportedly employed as contract workers with BEST and MTNL. During questioning, they told cops that they had assembled the bombs for fun.
Antop Hill police registered a case against the accused and produced them in court, which remanded them in police custody for seven days.
A team from Mumbai Crime Branch has left for West Bengal to probe further. Meanwhile, Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has started its own parallel investigation in the case to probe the terrorism angle.
