No Trinamool link to Burdwan blast: NIA

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is yet to come across any evidence to suggest that any cadre or leader of the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress was involved in the Burdwan blast case, sources told HT.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is yet to come across any evidence to suggest that any cadre or leader of the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress was involved in the Burdwan blast case, sources told HT.

“The NIA is has completed first leg of its probe into the case and sought sanction of the Union home ministry to chargesheet 23 alleged member of outlawed terror outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. So far, no involvement of any TMC cadre or leader has come to light,” said a government official requesting anonymity.

During the probe, the NIA managed to get judicial confession of three accused people in the case, sources said. Besides the judicial confessions of the accused, 11 witnesses in the case have also given their statement before a magistrate, to support the NIA case, sources added.

“During the probe, the NIA managed to arrest 17 accused and six have been declared proclaimed offenders. The probe will be on against around half-a-dozen more accused,” said the official. The BJP has repeatedly targeted the TMC for jeopardising national security in the Burdwan blast case for the sake of vote bank politics.

An accidental blast, while preparing an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), in a house at Khagragarh village of Burdawan district in West Bengal on October 2 last year resulted in killing of two suspected JMB members. It also revealed the presence of a large group of JMB members in Bengal and Assam who were arrested later.

During the probe it was found that the group was preparing IEDs on mass scale and managed to send around half a dozen consignments of 30 to 40 IEDs to Assam and Bangladesh.