By IANS
Nagpur : Police in this Maharashtra city intensified their vigil on the region’s explosives manufacturing units following revelations that the material used in the twin blasts in Hyderabad Saturday was manufactured in Nagpur.
“We were already geared for a closer watch on the explosives makers and buyers following the Hyderabad devastation and we are extra alert – especially after yesterday’s revelation,” Nagpur Joint Commissioner of Police B.C. Kangale told IANS Monday.
On media reports about the intended visit of the Hyderabad anti-terrorist squad to this city, Kangale said, “We are awaiting their arrival though we haven’t received any official communication in this regard”.
Crime branch sleuths raided the premises of Amin Explosives in Kalmeshwar near here Sunday after TV news channels aired stories about the Hyderabad police detecting an unexploded bomb that contained an explosive, Neo Gel 90, manufactured by the Nagpur-based company.
Police enquiries with the unit’s director Sohail Amin revealed that it has dealers and sub-dealers in several places in India including Hyderabad. The licensed explosives manufacturing company directly supplies material to public sector units like Western Coalfield Ltd (WCL) and Manganese Ore India Ltd (MOIL) too.
“Nothing amiss was found in the records maintained by Amin Explosives or the central excise department and the manufacturer cannot be held responsible for the activities of the end user of explosives made in his factory,” city police chief Satyapal Singh told reporters.
Nagpur, where the office of India’s chief controller of explosives (CCE) is situated, also has 12 out of the 64 licensed factories of authorised explosives in the country, five of whom manufacture Neo Gel, Joint CCE Ajay Nigam told IANS.
The CCE office inspects the proposed factory site and its surroundings, the infrastructure and technical know-how of the applicant before granting license and conducts periodic checks, Nigam said, adding that the procedure for obtaining license involving a no-objection certificate from the district magistrate on six counts is very strict.
The responsibility of monitoring the sale of the explosives to dealers, sub-dealers and end users (all of whom are required to have a license and maintain detailed records) lies with the police and the excise department, Nigam said.
“The loophole is at the end user’s end in that there is no mechanism to check whether the entire stock of explosives bought by him has been consumed for the declared purpose,” a top police official said.