Radio blast: ATS, NIA join hands to probe terror angle

Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and National Investigation Agency (NIA) personnel are probing a mysterious radio set explosion that occurred in Beed district on Friday afternoon.

Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and National Investigation Agency (NIA) personnel are probing a mysterious radio set explosion that occurred in Beed district on Friday afternoon.

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Four persons - Om Ramesh Nimbalkar (32), his wife Usha Nimbalkar (25), mother Kusum Nimbalkar (55) and two-year-old son Kunal - were injured in the blast. While Nimbalkar lost his right hand and two fingers of his left one, his wife and mother suffered hand fractures. Kunal incurred severe eye injuries in the incident.

Nimbalkar, who works as a conductor with the state transport corporation, had left from Mumbai in the Kurla-Ambejogai bus on Thursday evening. The next morning, the bus reached Ambejogai, and left for Latur around 7.40 am.

When the bus returned to Ambejogai from Latur at 11.30 am, and all the passengers had left, Nimbalkar found a radio set and three pencil cells in the bus. When Nimbalkar inserted the cells into the instrument and tried to switch it on, the radio set exploded. "Initial reports suggest that the radio's capacitor exploded when Nimbalkar put the batteries into the radio set. So far, no trace of explosives has been found at the blast site," said a senior investigator. At present, investigators are probing the case from all angles, including the possibility that the radio set may be an improvised explosive device (IED).