One person was injured in an explosion at a residential building in Kolkata’s New Town late on Friday evening, a team from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrived at the scene on Saturday.
Soon after the incident, local police, state police criminal investigation department and investigators from Bidhannagar city police’s detective department rushed to the spot.
CCTV footage showed a man entering one of the ground floor rooms of a three-storey building in South Narayanpur in New Town with a gunny bag. The explosion occurred moments after the man left the house. Police said the explosion damaged two adjacent apartments on the ground floor, in addition to walls, doors and windows.
Police also found two explosive devices in the room and arrested a person for questioning.
One of the officers said: “A person was injured when a piece of concrete fell on his head after the explosion. Two raw bombs were recovered from the site. The investigation is still ongoing.” The officer added: “One person was detained for questioning.”
Read also:3-year-old boy found dead in Delhi; A neighbor is in custody, suspected of sexual assault
The apartment owner, Zulfiqar Ansari, rented the room to Muhammad Shamim on July 15, people familiar with the matter said. Police said Shamim was on the run and the investigation is still ongoing.
“The tenant, Mohammad Shamim, came to me through a local broker I know. I told Shamim that he can start staying once the advance is paid. He took the keys to clean the apartment. He asked a man to keep the bag inside the room on Friday evening,” Ansari said.
“There was a deafening sound and there was smoke everywhere,” said Muhammad Sajid, a resident. “Families live in the other apartments on the ground floor, including three children. Fortunately, they had gone to attend classes around that time. Otherwise they could have been injured.”
The NIA reached the scene on Saturday and collected samples for forensic analysis to find out the explosives used.
