Two involved in making IED explosives arrested in Jammu and KashmirTwo involved

Representational Picture

On Saturday, the Jammu and Kashmir police arrested two people who were allegedly involved in making improvised explosive devices (IED) from Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district. A police spokesman said that on a credible input, searches were conducted at various locations in the district in the early hours of Saturday.

"During the searches, industrial explosives planned to be used in fabricating IEDs was recovered in a large quantity," he said. He further said that two people were arrested and efforts were on to nab the other conspirators.

"The police has registered a case under relevant provisions of law and investigation has been taken up. Among other things, the investigation will focus on the source of the recovered explosives," he added.

In a similar incident, the Navi Mumbai police arrested three men for allegedly planting an improvised explosive device (IED) near the New Sudhagad School at Kalamboli. The three arrested accused were identified as Manish Bhagat (45), Deepak Dandekar (55) and Sushil Sathe (35). The arrested trio confessed to the crime and revealed that they had planned to threaten and extort money from a Kalamboli-based builder.

According to the Navi Mumbai police, the motive of the trio was to threaten and extort money from a Navi Mumbai based builder in Kalamboli, for which they had placed the bomb near his house. Navi Mumbai Commissioner of Police, Sanjay Kumar said, that the trio did not belong to any terrorist group and ruled out the terror angle in this case.

Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Kumar said, "Bhagat was undergoing treatment at a Pune-based hospital for a critical ailment for which he had to take injections worth Rs 12 lakh every month, which he was unable to afford. Dandekar was recently fined Rs 25 lakh by a court in connection with a cheque bounce case and was asked to deposit the money at the earliest. Since Dandekar's father was working as stone-crusher hr had the licence to do the blast and therefore Dandekar knew the process of making a bomb. While Sathe became their friend recently. They decided to use it to their advantage and extort money from a renowned builder."

he police said that Dandekar and Bhagat, both residents of Navi Mumbai, were friends for a long time. The duo met Sathe, an estate agent during their visit to Pune. Three months ago, the trio rented a flat in Panvel where they built an explosive device using ammonium nitrate powder and gelatin sticks, which they used for blasting quarries. In the meanwhile, the trio hunted for a builder, who was financially stable enough to pay extortion amount of Rs 2 crore.

With inputs from PTI

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates