Fresh probe into missing explosives

A day after indicating that the reported dumping of 100 tonnes of industrial explosives from a ship bound for Afghanistan seemed above board...

A day after indicating that the reported dumping of 100 tonnes of industrial explosives from a ship bound for Afghanistan seemed above board, the Union Home Ministry supervising investigations into the incident ordered fresh investigations on Friday after Navy divers failed to trace either the containers or the explosives.

Yesterday, the ministry said that Navy divers had spotted metal containers at the spot identified by the captain of MV Eugenia. It had also let on that investigations seemed to confirm the report of the crew and the shipping line that the containers sank due to the ship being caught in bad weather.

However, reports reaching the Home Ministry today said that neither the containers nor the explosives were traceable. The divers came across a huge amount of junk on the seabed at the locations where the explosives were reported to have been thrown abroad.

Soon after being told that the Navy search had not yielded anything, the Home Ministry called for an emergency meeting and decided to order fresh investigations.

The ambit of the probe has been widened and the Secunderabad-based firm that sold the explosives to the Border Roads Organisations is now under scrutiny.

About 40 Navy divers operating from three warships, including INS Nirdeshak, continued to hunt for the 100 tonnes of explosives loaded in six containers which went missing on December 22. Union Home Secretary Vinod Kumar Duggal, and Defence Secretary Shekhar Dutt chaired a high-level meeting here today along with senior officers of the intelligence, Coast Guard and Navy to chalk out a strategy to locate the missing explosives.

Sources said the multi-agency security team formed had been asked to question the explosives supplier at Secunderabad and also quiz officials at the Bombay Port Trust.

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While Duggal said that the 8216;8216;situation was under control8217;8217;, an advisory has gone out to all states, informing them about the missing explosives and asking them to increase security and vigilance.