Forensic experts now want to go over the detector used at Chinnaswamy to understand why it beeped near the bags of a J&K player
Forensic experts now want to go over the detector used at Chinnaswamy to understand why it beeped near the bags of a J&K player
From politicians to the common man, everyone wants to know why a detector beeped on the day of a Champions League Twenty20 cricket match last week at the Chinnaswamy stadium, though no explosives could be found anywhere. But it seems the answer may take some more time in the coming.
The authorities now want to thoroughly understand the working of the detector that was used in the hope of solving the riddle. They also want to go over the sequence of events exactly as it happened when the alarm went off.
Only, officials of the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) are still waiting for the piece of security equipment that went beep-beep like mad on Saturday near the bags of a player from Jammu and Kashmir, Parvez Rasool, who had to go through the whole police-check routine before nothing was found against him.
The incident had also drawn angered reactions from the government of Rasool's state, which said it was hurt by the treatment meted out to him.
Another bags check
Official sources said an examination of Rasool's bags had revealed no evidence of explosive substances, but that they now wanted to go through them more minutely by conducting a sub-micro-level examination, as it is called.
"But first of all, we wanted to study the programming of the equipment that beeped at the match," said an official, who requested anonymity.
Machine programme
The official said that such detectors were programmed to identify about 30 types of substances, ranging from explosives to narcotics.
"There are also chances, going by the description of the machine, that it may at times trigger a false alarm," the official said. "There is a between 1 per cent and 20 per cent chance of a false alarm. We are waiting for detector to re-enact the whole exercise leading to the alarm."
Senior police officers said the FSL has written to the company seeking the security equipment and a response was awaited.
Rasool's bags are still with the FSL. "We do not want to let go of any crucial evidence if it is still there, and thus we have decided to keep the baggage safe till we complete our investigation and submit a report to the police," said an FSL official. "There may be residues of some substances other than explosives that are still in there and which triggered the alarm."
Officials of the Anti-Terrorist Squad, who had rushed to the stadium on the day of the scare and carried our investigations along with the bomb detection squad, said they had not found any explosive substances.
But the police wanted to be absolutely sure and that is how the FSL entered the picture.
"We found the detector was buzzing though there were no explosives found and decided to seek FSL help as it was a sensitive issue," said a police officer.
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