Two arrested for planting gelatin sticks, detonators near Mumbai

The police are yet to find out as from whom the two men had sourced the explosives from

Two months after the police found four detonators and four gelatin sticks near a house at Shildaighar in Thane, two workers were on Wednesday arrested for allegedly planting the explosives.

The police said Guddu Mehboob Ali Ansari alias Anwarali, 27, and Pappu Gopal Dive alias Raju,42, wanted to settle scores with Indu Singh, 40, who filed a complaint against them over alleged harassment in May.

Ansari and Dive are from Shildaighar and do odd jobs for a living.

“To seek revenge, the two men bought the explosives from unidentified people. At midnight on June 6, they kept the gelatin sticks and detonators near Singh’s house and fled,” said S Tadakhe, an officer of Thane crime branch.

“One of our informers told us about the a unclaimed sack. We went to the spot and seized it on June 7,” he said.

After questioning Singh’s friends and local residents, the police zeroed in on Dive and Ansari. “We detained them and later they confessed to the crime. They said they planted the explosive to settle scores,” added Tadakhe.

The police are yet to find out as from whom the two men had sourced the explosives.

This is not the first time that the Thane police have stumbled upon revenge capers involving explosives. On August 7, they arrested three people for storing 10kg of ammonium nitrate and detonators in a vehicle at a scrapyard in Mumbra.

They bore a grudge against the owner of the scrapyard, Ismail Shaikh.