In a major development the police on Sunday seized huge quantity of explosives from three alleged arm-dealers in Silguri.
The trio including a woman and hailing from Nepal lived in a rented room at Darjeeling More in the commissionary town and ran a hotel, Siliguri Commissioner of Police CS lepcha said adding “as many as 609 gelatin sticks, two detonators and 640 metres of codex cables were seized” from the accused who had been arrested.
Though the investigation was in its early days the officials suspected a Maoist link in the explosives haul. “It is not certain but it seems they have connections with the Maoists of Nepal,” officers said.
The police said a man called Krhisna Prasad Adhikari was arrested following a tip-off. After he was interrogated two other persons Dawa Shering Bhutia alias Gurung and his alleged wife Puja limbu were a house at Darjeeling More under Pradhan Nagar Police Station. Their ages ranged between 35 and 50 police said.
As Siliguri is not far from the Rangpur and Dinajpupr borders of Bangladesh the investigators were not ruling out “other angles.” The CID was taking up the investigation and had conducted raids at some more places in the biggest city of North Bengal when reports last came in.
“There may be KlO or other hands. So it is very difficult to tell things for certain right now. We are also trying to find out whether these people are professional arms dealers or themselves involved in terror activities” an official said wondering whether the explosives were meant for any other place in India.
The Sunday’s haul tends to buttress the recent reports that Bengal had become a major transit point of arms and terrorists.
While the police would not disclose much details sources said one of the accused was a “professional career” of weapons. Another person worked at a coal mine in Shillong while the third was a security guard in Siliguri.
Puja and Dawa-who were living at their place of arrest for six months-had told their neighbours that they wanted to open a hotel for which they had rented the house.