Firecracker blast near CM’s stage; 2nd security breach in a month

In a second breach of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s security in less than a month, a 23-year-old man detonated a firecracker blast close to the stage from where the CM was meeting people at a small gathering at Silao in Nalanda district on Tuesday, police said

In a second breach of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s security in less than a month, a 23-year-old man detonated a firecracker blast close to the stage from where the CM was meeting people at a small gathering at Silao in Nalanda district on Tuesday, police said.

Police arrested the suspect after the incident. (ANI)

The suspect, identified as Shubham Aditya, was immediately nabbed and arrested.

There was no report of any injury to anyone, police said.

According to additional director general of police (headquarters) Jitendra Singh Gangwar, the incident took place around 3:45 pm when the chief minister was hearing out people’s complaints. “The youth, a resident of Satyarganj in Nalanda district, detonated a small firecracker. Alert security personnel caught him immediately and doused the flame. Preliminary investigation revealed that the man had gone missing from his house in 2017 and an FIR was lodged in Islampur police station by his family members. Police are interrogating him further,” Gangwar said.

A police team has also been sent to his native village to collect more information about his family and other antecedents.

On Tuesday, Kumar had gone to Pawapuri and he was to go to Rajghat via Silao from there. The incident happened at Silao Gandhi High School, where there were around 250 people.

On March 27, at a public function at Bakhtiyarpur in Nalanda district, a youth had managed to breach the CM’s security cordon and hit him before the security personnel pounced on him. The youth was later found to be mentally unstable.

After the incident, the CM’s security details were discussed at a high-level meeting of the home department and instructions issued to boost it.