Two nabbed for planting ‘IED’ at bag shop

The police claimed to have solved a case in which the nephew of a bag shop owner of Harbans Tower in the Jodhewal Basti locality had conspired to blow up his shop by planting an ‘improvised explosive device (IED)’ for paving the way for his (nephew’s) prosperity in his business. Two persons were nabbed.

The suspects were identified as Sonu Kumar of Hardoi in UP, at present residing at Basti Jodhewal, and his accomplice Mohammad Amir of Chapur village in Saharanpur, UP, now residing on Jagirpur Road here.

The police claimed that the suspects were arrested within hours of receipt of a formal complaint by the shop owner, Ajay Kumar, of Harbans Tower on Thursday.

Commissioner of Police (CP), Ludhiana, Swapan Sharma, said Ajay had informed the police that the suspects had planted the explosive device at his shop on Saturday afternoon on the pretext of purchasing a suitcase. He left a blue bag there, saying that he would pick it up after some time. He was wearing a mask and paid Rs 500 as token money for the selected suitcase.

It was on Wednesday night that Ajay became suspicious about the bag on noticing the smell of petrol. He got the bag shifted to a deserted part of the road in the presence of residents of the area.

Police officials, led by SHO, Daresi Ground police station, were deployed to investigate the matter, following which it was found that the bag was containing some packets of petrol and paraphernalia required for exploding the contents.

A cardboard box, two battery cells, one small clock, one small electric motor, some conducting wires, seven packets of petrol (around 6 litres) and 15-20 gms of some chemical powder were recovered from the bag.

Investigation revealed that Sonu, who is the nephew of Ajay, used to work with him at his shop earlier. But for the past six months the suspect had set up his separate bag shop following a monetary dispute with the complainant.

With ulterior motive of expanding his business, Sonu decided to destroy Ajay’s shop and conspired with his friend Amir to commit the crime. They learnt to prepare a crude bomb by following instructions on YouTube and collected materials required for preparing the IED at Amir’s house.

The probe further revealed that the device failed to explode as conductors were not connected and the watch too was not functioning.

The CP appreciated that prompt and coordinated action by police officials deployed for investigating the case had led to identification and arrest of the suspects.

Meanwhile, empty plots and deserted buildings situated in various parts of the city are also being exploited for dumping suspicious materials. In a similar incident, some miscreants dumped a bag in a plot near the treasury branch of the State Bank of India in the Civil Lines area, that started emanating a foul smell on Thursday. Some miscreants, instead of informing the Municipal Corporation about the death of a dog, had dumped its body in a vacant police station, thus spreading panic in the region.

Led by Nitin Batra, husband of the ward councillor, residents, who gathered at Basti Jodhewal, alleged that some anti-social elements were bent upon spreading panic in the city during the festival season.

He called upon the administration to take serious notice of such incidents and take the investigation of the abandoned bag case to a conclusive end and expose other accomplices also, if any, in the case.