Chargesheet filed against 2 in Nimtita Rly station blast case

KOLKATA: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) filed chargesheet against two accused persons in Nimtita blast case in which Minister of State (MoS) for state labour department, Jakir Hossain and 21 others suffered injury.

The arrested persons were held accused under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) along with Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Explosive Substances (ES) Act.

The incident had taken place at the platform number 2 of Nimtita railway station on February 17 night this year when Hossain was waiting to catch a train to Kolkata. After the case was handed over to the Criminal Investigation (CID), a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was formed initially. But later on March 2, the NIA took over the investigation as instructed by the Union Home ministry. NIA had taken custody of two accused persons Abu Samad and Sahidul Islam, who were arrested by the police earlier.

During the probe NIA officials found that the accused duo had hatched a criminal conspiracy to kill Hossain, and his supporters in order to spread terror and to disturb the Assembly Election.

Islam had procured materials for making IED from the local shops and had held various meetings with Samad for final selection of site for executing the conspiracy. Both the accused persons had also unsuccessfully tried to destroy the phones used by them for misleading the investigation agency. NIA has submitted a chargesheet, the central agency has appealed before the Special NIA court to carry on with further investigation.

Earlier, a team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had conducted searches at the residences of two persons in Murshidabad district in connection with its probe into the Nimtita blast case. NIA sleuths searched the residences of the two persons, who are meat sellers, at Chadra locality. One of the persons arrested in the case named the two as suppliers of "certain items to help manufacture the bomb", a source said.