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High on bhang, he defused bomb
HE WAS high on bhang, but saved many lives by unwittingly defusing the third powerful pressure cooker bomb in the city?s Dashashwamedh area on Tuesday. Now, the administration has decided to reward him and two others. Ramnagar-based electrician Babu Lal Rawat?s moment of glory came when he opened a bag that had been left with a vendor by one of the two suspects whose sketch has been released by the police. He found a new pressure cooker, wrapped in a white cover, inside the bag.
HE WAS high on bhang, but saved many lives by unwittingly defusing the third powerful pressure cooker bomb in the city’s Dashashwamedh area on Tuesday.
Now, the administration has decided to reward him and two others.
Ramnagar-based electrician Babu Lal Rawat’s moment of glory came when he opened a bag that had been left with a vendor by one of the two suspects whose sketch has been released by the police. He found a new pressure cooker, wrapped in a white cover, inside the bag.
“I always carry a cutter with me. With it, I tried to prise open the cooker, which was very hot,” Rawat told HT.
He said since he had consumed a heavy dose of bhang (cannabis resin), he was unmindful of the danger to himself.
“As I sat on the road, holding the cooker, I detected two wires fitted to the whistle. I immediately cut the two wires”, he said, adding, “Some ash came out.”
“Even then I did not realise it was a bomb. Policemen alerted me and called a bomb disposal squad which took the cooker away.”
By snapping the two wires, Rawat had already defused the bomb.
Police officials said there was a time device inside the cooker and it was set to go off at 8 pm, an hour and a half before it was defused.
But, Rawat’s was not really a solo act. If it had not been made for the presence of mind of two vendors, Varanasi would have faced a bigger tragedy.
The vendors sensed something amiss when two youths left the bag with them after purchasing doormats from them on Tuesday evening in the Dashashwamedh area.
“Two persons, one in an orange T-shirt and jeans, and another clean shaven one in a white shirt and jeans asked for doormats,” vendor Satnam Prasad alias Pullu told Hindustan Times.
“The two purchased a doormat each from me and my neighbour Chandan.”
Pullu told HT and the Special Task Force that the youth in the orange T-shirt left a green bag near Chandan.
“I noticed it and told Chandan. He, in turn, informed the youth who promised to return soon to collect the bag.”
“ When the youth did not return, I told Chandan to inform the police,” Pullu said.
“Repeated warnings by Pullu forced me to inform the police,” Chandan told HT.
On Thursday morning, principal secretary, Home, Alok Sinha, ADG (Law and Order) A Palnivel, divisional commissioner CN Dubey, inspector general of police (Varanasi range) KL Meena, Varanasi SSP Navniet Sikera and district magistrate Nitin R Gokran visited the place in the Dashashwamedh area and met the three persons. The officials announced a reward for the three for their bravery.
Meanwhile, the STF is examining the videocassette of a marriage ceremony that was in progress inside the Sankatmochan Temple when the pressure cooker bomb exploded. Videographer Harish Bijlani died on the spot.
