Bomb-making material seized in Kolkata

In a major haul, the CID on Sunday seized a huge amount of bomb-making chemicals from a warehouse in Kolkata, police said.

The seizure was made by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which is already probing the seizure of nearly 100 kg of explosive material from Raghunathganj area of Murshidabad district earlier in the month.

"We have seized 18 sacks of ammonium nitrate, four sacks of brown material smelling like gun powder and some cans of aluminium paste," CID Deputy Inspector General Dilip Kumar Adak said.

The seizure was made from a warehouse of Jai Durga Transport Company in Strand Road area. The CID on Friday had arrested the warehouse manager Pankaj Godhai.

"Godhai's interrogation led to the recovery of the materials at his warehouse. We are looking if today's incident has any links with the explosives seized in Raghunathganj. We cannot say for what purpose the explosive and raw materials were stored but we are not ruling out a terror link," the officer said.

Following the recovery in Raghunathganj on August 9, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had ordered the CID to take over the probe.

Banerjee said she has received detailed inputs from the Intelligence Bureau and claimed that some terrorist organisation along with a political party were conspiring to destabilise the state.

The state government subsequently sounded an alert at railway stations, airports, important public places, vital installations and public buildings across the state and the city.

Police on Saturday arrested seven people including five Sri Lankans or terror suspicion from the city.