1,000 kg explosives haul: One of prime accused held in Odisha

Kolkata: The Special Task Force (STF) of Kolkata Police arrested one of the prime accused in connection with the recovery of 1000 kgs of explosives from a matador that was intercepted at the northern slope of Tala bridge on BT Road under Chitpore police station on March 9.

"We have arrested Mustafa Shiekh alias Bomb Mustafa from Odisha in connection with the case of explosive recovery, "a senior STF official said.

Mustafa was produced at Bankshal court and was remanded to police custody till April 12. He was brought to Kolkata by the STF sleuths after the local court in Odisha had granted two days transit remand.

A resident of Dantan in West Midnapore Mustafa is suspected to be the linkman in the case and the police was in the look out for him soon after the recovery.

According to STF sources investigations in the case have identified one Sahoo in Odisha as the manufacturer of such explosives. Mustafa was the prime architect in establishing the link between Sahoo and the recipients of such staff in Bengal.

It may be mentioned that the STF had arrested the driver and the helper of the vehicle that was carrying the explosive at the time of the haul.

It was coming from Balasore in Odisha and was headed towards North 24 Parganas.

The explosive substance was primarily identified as ammonium nitrate and was carried in 27 pieces of gunny bags. Both the arrested duo.

Indrajit Bhui (25) and Padmolochon Dey (31) were residents of Balasore in Odisha. Bhui was the driver of the

vehicle while Dey was the khalashi. The sleuths later arrested one Rabiul Islam of North 24 Parganas who used to procure the explosive from Sahoo.

The sleuths are not ruling out the involvement of Mustafa in the supply of explosive from Vijaynagar in Andhra Pradesh to Bengal.

"We have taken him into custody and will grill him for further leads in the case," an STF officer said.