West Bengal: Midnapore explosion accused nabbed from Odisha

Kolkata: The prime accused in the case of the blast in an illegal firecracker making unit, Krishnapada Bag alias Bhanu, his son, and his nephew were arrested from a hospital near Cuttack, Odisha, on Thursday.

The blast in Egra in East Midnapore district on Tuesday had claimed at least nine lives and left several injured.

Man was in ICU due to severe burn injuries

Bhanu had been kept in the ICU at the hospital from where a team of the West Bengal CID nabbed him as he had suffered severe burn injuries, hospital sources said quoting the doctors.

“The document provided by Bhanu showed that he was a resident of Balasore in Odisha. We told him that it was a police case but he said that he needs treatment urgently. Bhanu told us that there was a function in his house and he was injured as a gas cylinder exploded. The next day (Wednesday) we informed the local police about him,” the treating doctor told the media.

The Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court, TS Sivagnanam, directed the CID to submit the investigation report of the case to the court and had also instructed the agency to add the NIA (Explosives Recovery) Act to the complaint.

TMC vs BJP

The explosion took a political turn with the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) blaming the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the blast.

People are resorting to hazardous and illegal means of earning money because they are not getting their dues as the BJP-led central government is not releasing funds due to the state, TMC national secretary Abhishek Banerjee told the media.

“More than 20 lakh people are awaiting their dues under the 100 Days’ Work Scheme. Almost 2.65 crore job-card holders dependent on the MGNREGS are awaiting their dues. If there is backlog, people tend to search for other options to earn a living,” Banerjee said.