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Reiterating Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s statement that Wednesday night’s blast in West Midnapore’s Pingla area, in which 12 people died, took place at a cracker factory, the state CID on Friday said the unit was only manufacturing crackers and not bombs.
The statement comes on a day when CFSL experts, in their preliminary report, have stated that the blast should not have had a “mechanical impact” had the factory only been used to manufacture crackers.
DIG Dilip Adak of CID (Operations), who visited the blast spot on Friday, said: “Our preliminary investigation reveals that the factory used to make crackers. The aluminium powder found at the spot is used to make fire crackers and not bombs. It makes crackers, used in festivals and family occasions, glow. No material used to make bombs has been found.”
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“Our team has started investigation and collected samples. Experts from Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) have also visited the spot. We will send samples to them for examination,” he added.
Contradicting the reports that iron balls and splinters have been found at the blast spot, Adak said: “The CID team has not found any metallic substance that can be used as splinters.”
However, a senior CFSL official said: “We have found bodies scattered all over the area. Had it been a simple cracker factory, this would not have happened. A fire at a cracker factory may trigger an explosion, but it will not have a mechanical impact till a huge amount of pressure is released… The victims would have mostly sustained burn injuries.”
The CFSL team is likely to visit the area again in a couple of days. “We are yet to receive samples from CID. After examining the samples, we can identify the chemicals used. Though no metallic substance has been found, sacks full of stone chips were recovered from the area,” he added.
Adak said 10 deceased were from Suti in Murshidabad. “We will send DNA samples to the forensic laboratory for their identification,” he added.
Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress leader and owner of the factory, Ranjan Maity, was produced before Midnapore CJM Manjushree Mondal on Friday. He was remanded to CID custody for 14 days.
CPM state secretary Surya Kanta Mishra, who visited Pingla on Thursday, alleged that CID was trying to hush up the
incident.
State BJP president Rahul Sinha too said that a party delegation will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kolkata
on Friday demanding an NIA investigation.
A state Congress delegation has also sought an appointment with Modi.
Opposition party SUCI has called a 12-hour bandh in Pingla police station area on Saturday in protest against the alleged inability of the police to find out illegal cracker factories and protect innocent people.
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