First we will blow up school, then ONGC, Uran student overheard suspect

Uran teean, who saw suspiciousmen with weapons, arrives at police station this morning. Pic/ Atul Kamble

The student who set off one of the biggest security alerts in the state was, on Friday morning, brought to the Uran police station to be questioned by Navi Mumbai police commissioner Hemant Nagrale. The police will later submit a report about this to the state government.

The girl who studies at Uran Education Society and Junior College had confided in a teacher on Thursday morning that she had spotted five to six suspicious people wearing black masks and Pathani suits. The police, however, did not take this information at face value, and immediately activated their informer network in the area. Police sources said, "As soon as we activated our local sources, one of them informed us about some suspicious movement noticed near the coast. The police then took the matter seriously as the spot that the girl had told us about was just a few kilometres from the ONGC plant."

According to an investigating agency official, who had questioned the girl earlier, she told them, "When I was walking to the school on Thursday morning there were five-six people walking with heavy backpacks and long guns in their hands. They were wearing black masks and were dressed in Pathani suits. They were talking among themselves in Hindi and English and said, 'Pehle School ko udayenge fir ONGC ko, now divide in two-two groups'."

Heavy security arrangements after two school children spotted suspicious looking gunmen at Uran, in Navi Mumbai. Pic/PTI

Scared, the girl rushed to school and told her teacher, principal Swati Shiralkar of the Uran Education Society told mid-day, "The girl student overheard the five-six suspicious looking men near Kumbharwada while she was coming to school. There is a gate which is usually closed, but the girl saw that it was open yesterday. She told us they had guns on their shoulders and backpacks. She got scared and told the class teacher about it. We then inquired with local authorities if it was a drill, as there are frequent drills conducted in the area but they told us there was no drill being conducted. We then alerted the students and during this, another student too stated he had also seen a man similar to the ones the girl had spoken about, the only difference being that the girl saw them at 6.30am and the boy at 7am and we then informed the police. The girl has been interrogated by several police officers, but her version has not changed."

The police conducted massive search operations on Thursday and have questioned at least 2,000 people since the incident. The police are yet to get any clues from the CCTVs in nearby areas.