Hand grenade found inside temple premises

NEW DELHI, OCT 1: The Delhi Police found a hand grenade and a detonator from the Jhandewalan Temple premises in Central Delhi last night....

NEW DELHI, OCT 1: The Delhi Police found a hand grenade and a detonator from the Jhandewalan Temple premises in Central Delhi last night. The grenade was found in a store frequented only by the temple staff. Investigating officials have not been able to determine the person responsible for keeping the explosive there.

DCP Central Ajay Kashyap said that the grenade was found near the Satsang Bhawan adjacent to the main temple. The hall is being used for storing offerings for the deity, incense sticks, lamps, chunnis and sarees used during worship.

The hall is strictly out of bounds for visitors. Several temple caretakers were preparing the offerings for today8217;s Dusshera celebrations in the hall yesterday. After they left, one of the temple staffers was shutting the door around 7 pm when he reportedly noticed a polythene bag lying near the door.

According to Dulyram Gupta, secretary, Jhandewalan temple committee, the caretaker assumed it to be a bag of coconuts and lifted it to keep it inside butfound it unusually heavy. He looked inside the bag and found a grenade and a detonator packed separately in two newspaper sheets. According to the police, as the grenade and the detonator were kept separately there was very little chance of an explosion.

The caretaker, who found the hand grenade, called the chief of the temple staff who immediately informed the police. Fearing that it might be explode, one of the temple staff carried the bag to the terrace and put it under a heap of sand. Meanwhile, the bomb disposal squad rushed to the spot. The temple was evacuated and the premises cordoned off. The squad searched other rooms in the temple premises as well.

The investigating team is preparing a list of the temple caretakers who entered the store last night. The police believe that there is little possibility that the grenade was brought in through the main entrance as every visitor has to go through a metal detector before entering the premises.

A case has been registered under the ExplosiveSubstances Act. The police have not ruled out the possibility that someone had kept the grenade inside the temple with the sole motive of scaring the temple staff and the visitors.