Kerala - Kozhikode   

S.M. Street fire: police suspect Bangalore link

— Photo: K. Ragesh.

Spot assessment: Inspector-General of Police (Crimes) K. Padmakumar visiting S.M. Street in the city on Friday.

Kozhikode: Samples collected from the July blast sites in Bangalore and the debris of Sweet Meat Street here from where a fire broke out in April 2007 contained similar chemical composition and materials.

The Karnataka police have informed this to the State Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department, top sources told The Hindu here on Friday.

Low intensity improvised explosive devices were used in the blasts at five places in Bangalore on July 25. Forensic experts there confirmed that the samples contained ammonium nitrate, an easily available substance, which had been used to trigger the blasts. Ammonium nitrate, gelignite sticks and concrete pieces connected to timer devices were used to set off the bombs in that city.

The State Forensic Department had given a report to the Crime Branch that its team had found the presence of a mixture of potassium chlorate, potassium nitrate, aluminium powder, carbon and sulphur in the samples collected from the site.

Sources said that a “concrete shrapnel with a fuse wire, recovered from the site, was also detected in the exploded materials in Bangalore too. Investigators were probing all angles in the wake of the heightened security in the country. Till now, the Crime Branch was not able to establish what exactly caused the blast, the officer said.

Meanwhile, Inspector-General of Police (Crimes) K. Padmakumar visited the site of the fire on Moideen Palli Road, linking Sweet Meat Street on Friday.

He was in the city after the State government ordered further investigation into the incident after the State and Central intelligence agencies suspected a similarity in the blasts in Bangalore and the fire that broke out from a wholesale firecracker shop on April 5, last year. The fire resulted in the death of eight persons.

Mr. Padmakumar said that the Crime Branch was carrying out an “in-depth investigation” and it had not wound up the case. He also held a meeting with Crime Branch Special Investigation Group-III Superintendent of Police T.M. Abubacker and State Special Branch SP T.K. Rajmohan. The Crime Branch is now looking into the theory of sabotage. It had earlier ruled out the possibility of sabotage considering the report of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL). The launch of a further probe came when the Crime Branch was planning to wind up the case.

This was after the visit of two senior police officers from Karnataka, Additional Director-General of Police (Law and Order) Abdul Rahman Infant and Inspector-General of Police (Anti-Terrorist Cell) M.K. Nagaraj, last week to the site of the fire and their collection of details.

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