Bengal explosion: Mamata government rejects evidence destruction allegations

The West Bengal government Sunday clarified that a probe into the Oct 2 explosion in Burdwan district was being carried out as per standard norms and rubbished allegations that West Bengal Police was destroying evidences and hindering investigation.

Reacting to the explosion in a house in Khagragarh in the district in which two suspected militants were killed, the BJP has accused the police of destroying evidence while claiming explosives seized from the site were diffused in haste.

Similar accusations have been made by Left Front Chairman Biman Bose.

The ruling Trinamool Congress has already rubbished the allegation while Home Secretary Basudeb Banerjee called a press conference Sunday and rejected all the charges.

"Media reports have said that the defusing of explosive by the state police tantamount to destruction of evidence but I would like to clarify that this is a standard procedure to destroy any explosive seized by the police.

"The defusing of explosives was carried out as per standard operating procedures and the entire process was videographed. The remnants thereof have been collected and sent to CFSL for evaluation. A CFSL team was also at the spot," Banerjee told the media.

He also rejected allegations of the state agencies not cooperating with the National Investigating Agency (NIA) and said a composite task force has been constituted by the police to probe the matter.

"The CID has taken over the probe and the DGP (state police) has formed a composite task force with top officers from state police, CID, IB and Kolkata Police to probe the case. Two women have already been arrested and remanded in police custody for nine days," he said.

Banerjee also said a large number of chemicals and literature relating to ways and means of making bombs and explosive devices have been seized from the house.

"Contrary to some media reports, no RDX material or literature indicating involvement of Al Qaeda have been recovered from the site," he added.

Claiming that Bengal was becoming a "safe haven for jihadis and anti-nationals", BJP national secretary Siddharth Nath Singh accused the state police of destroying the seized explosives before a NIA team arrived for inspection and also said the central agency was not promptly informed about the incident as is the regular practice.

Within hours of BJP and Left's allegations, Trinamool MP and national general secretary Mukul Roy dubbed Singh as well as Bose's comments as "irresponsible and insensitive" and accused both of "conspiring to disturb peace and harmony in Bengal".

"The state administration acted with pace and precision to tackle the incident, and has already made arrests. The Left and the BJP seem to be united in instigating hate-mongering," said Roy.