A report by the Bardhaman district administration has confirmed that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) put the life of a young boy in danger during the investigations into the October 2 blast in the district.
The report by the district administration, submitted to the West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR), which has been accessed by The Hindu , stated that the child was a 13-year-old, according to his school certificate. According to the report, the child was asked by a group of persons, some in plainclothes and others in uniform, to climb the shelf above the staircase of the house. The shelf contained sacks, and the child was asked to check the contents.
“According to his version, he climbed the big shelf to find that there were two or three sacks which contained equipment used by masons. He removed them to get access to the next sack, which was knotted. He opened the sack which contained some iron-like metallic things,” the report said. It also pointed out that nobody was near the child when he opened the sacks and all the officials were standing downstairs.
“On being asked whether the child knew why he was made to climb the shelf, he said he did not and he would not have gone inside had he known,” the report said.
An NIA statement issued on October 16, said, “NIA officers assisted by the Bardhaman District Police conducted search of a house of one important person linked to the incident located in Bardhaman wherein a sack full of IEDs concealed in a room has been recovered.” However, a senior NIA officer told The Hindu in October that “a small incident is being blown out of proportion.”
The explosives were recovered from the house of Sk Rezaul, an accused in the blast case, not far from the house at Khagragarh in Bardhaman where the “accidental blast” occurred on October 2.
