The BJP has demanded a National Investigation Agency probe into the massive blast that on Tuesday rocked a building housing a local club in north Kolkata’s Beliaghata area ripping apart the walls and blowing off the roof of the room where the explosion occurred.
The explosion occurred early on Tuesday morning. No one, however, sustained injuries in the blast that occurred on the second floor of the club building on Beliaghata Main Road, police said adding they were “looking into the matter.”
A team of forensic experts reached the explosion site to collect evidence, and sniffer dogs were also pressed into service to gather clues officials said.
“We heard a huge explosion, following which we rushed out of our houses and found two persons fleeing. Their faces were covered... We do not know what exactly happened,” a resident of the area said.
Even as opposition BJP upped the ante against the Mamata Banerjee Government, party MP Locket Chatterjee said, “this blast is another instance of criminalization of Bengal and its deteriorating law and order situation,” blaming a Trinamool Congress hand behind the blasts.
“Everyone knows that Beleghata is one place in Kolkata where no elections take place… where no one is allowed to vote be it parliamentary or Assembly or municipal elections… this is one region where only goonda raj of TMC prevails. Hence we demand an NIA investigation into the facts that led to the blast,|” she said while police suspected local goons were behind the blast.
“It seems that there was a huge stockpile of explosives which were being used to produce country-made bombs when things went wrong leading to the blast,” a police officer said.
The impact of the explosion was such that two walls of the room where the materials were stored caved in and the asbestos roof flew off. Window panes of houses about 60 feet away got shattered under the impact of the blast, sources said.
Even as a BJP team led by Chatterjee was prevented from entering the Beleghata area, Bengal Minister Firhad Hakim launched a counterattack on the saffron outfit saying “we are not Gujarat or UP or any other BJP ruled state that crimes and criminals will go unpunished. Any criminal from any party involved in the crime would be brought to book and there is no need for the BJP leaders to create a ruckus to win political brownie points because.”