Investigating officers said on Friday that the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) found in a State Transport bus in Apta village in Raigad district on Wednesday night was actually transferred from another bus by mistake.
Sources said that the driver and the conductor of the Karjat-Apta bus found the device wrapped in plastic inside a cloth bag placed on a overhead rack at 10.15 p.m. after all the passengers had alighted at Apta. The Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad was then called in to defuse the device.
A source, who is part of the investigation, said that the cloth bag had been originally placed next to the conductor’s ticket dispenser on the Alibaug-Karjat bus on Wednesday. The source said, “Once the driver and conductor of the Alibaug–Karjat bus reached Karjat, the Karjat–Apta route was assigned as their next trip. When the conductor went to the washroom, the driver decided to shift their luggage to the next bus. He noticed a bag lying near the conductor’s ticket dispenser and took it along with him for the next trip.”
The source said the conductor told the driver that the bag did not belong to him when they spotted it while carrying out a routine check of the bus on reaching Apta. They raised an alarm when they opened the cloth bag and saw a device with electrical circuits inside.
‘Circuits were incomplete’
The source said, “The substance used in the IED looks like urea granules. However, urea by itself is not explosive unless mixed with other chemicals. The intention seems to be to create panic and not cause damage. We are awaiting reports from the Forensic Sciences Laboratory in Kalina.”
Meanwhile, Raigad police sources said the circuits on the device were incomplete and the batteries used were rechargeable. An Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) officer attached with the Raigad unit said, “The IED had plastic straws, stick pieces and nails, which are not used by bomb-making experts. There was no timer attached to the IED. We suspect that the bomb was never intended to explode but only to spread panic. The bomb was a combination of traditional and sophisticated ways of making bombs. Predicting the intention of the bomb will be difficult until we receive the technical report.”
The Local Crime Branch (LCB) is also investigating if the act is politically motivated as gram panchayat elections are in progress in Raigad. An officer from the Raigad LCB said, “Investigations are being conducted to explore all possible angles, including political motives as the election season is on. Someone with knowledge in bomb-making has done this. It could have been anyone who boarded the bus between Alibaug and Karjat.”
Narrowing in on suspects
Investigation has revealed that the plastic cover in which the IED was wrapped is manufactured only in Aapta, Mahad and Masjid. The ATS is scanning CCTV footage at bus stops between Alibaug and Karjat and the police are tracking the movements of suspects and history-sheeters in the area. Call Detail Records of numbers that passed through the route are being analysed for suspicious activity.
An ATS officer said, “Owners of tourist homes and hotels have been asked to keep a check on the activities of their guests and verify their identity before permitting them to check-in.”
