After the death of two persons in a blast on the Bisra-Dahar road on February 2, the mystery of illegal explosive trading is being gradually unearthed by police. Ghamanlal Agarwal and Premsagar Sahoo were killed in the explosion due to short circuit in the godwon of the former. Reaching the spot, a police team led by Rourkela SP Anirudha Singh found 570 gelatins and 375 detonators from the godown.
It was revealed that the explosives were illegally brought from the IDl Explosive ltd in Andhra Pradesh and Black Diamond Explosive ltd in West Bengal. Surprisingly, Agarwal, without having any license, was keeping huge quantity of explosives in a busy area for long time. However, it was fortune for the local people that only one gelatin was exploded and it could not spread over to other explosives; or else the locality would have witnessed a massive disaster.
Besides, Premsagar, a native of Kalunga, had been regularly taking explosives from Agarwal to supply to different mines and quarries, raising questions that which units have been using the unauthorised explosives for years together. Moreover, when Agarwal was arrested with illegal explosives two years back and later released on bail, then under what circumstance the police could not keep vigil on him.
In another incident, the Jharkhand police have seized 8,000 detonators in two packets from a Rourkela-Jharkhand bus. The police arrested the driver and conductor and court-forwarded forwarded the helper. During interrogation, the helper informed that two youths gave him two packets with some money and told him to unload them at lohardega.
This indicates that besides Agarawal, some more are involved in illegal explosive trading; and, Rourkela is the centre. Sources said the Uditnagar police have traced certain mobile numbers used in illegal trading and investigating into the matter.