NIA takes up Burdwan blast probe, registers case

Formally taking over the probe of the Oct 2 explosion in West Bengal's Burdwan district, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Friday registered a case under relevant anti-terrorism laws.

The union home ministry Thursday directed the NIA to take over the probe of the explosion, which took place in a house in Burdwan's Khagragarh, killing two suspected militants and injuring another.

"In compliance with the ministry of home affairs order, a case has been registered at the NIA headquarters under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, and the Explosive Substances Act," the NIA said in a press statement. The case will be investigated by its Kolkata branch.

The NIA said the two people killed "are believed to be members of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh".

An NIA team also held a meeting at the headquarters of the West Bengal CID (Criminal Investigation Department), which has been probing the case so far.

While four people, two of them women, have been arrested, the police during the day nabbed two more people who allegedly sold SIM cards and mobile phones to the suspected militants.

The two - Ashok Mukherjee and Moinul Islam - were arrested from Ketugram in Burdwan. They were later remanded in three days' police custody by a local court.

The Mamata Banerjee government was vehemently opposing the NIA probe, asserting it will be an attack on federalism while the Communist Part of India-Marxist and the Bharatiya Janata Party have been pressing for the central agency's intervention, alleging the state government was covering up the probe to hide the ruling Trinamool Congress' "terror links".