Kerala convention centre blast updates | Toll rises to three; accused to be produced in court today

BJP chief J. P. Nadda launched a scathing attack on the Left government in Kerala on Monday, accusing it of “soft pedalling” the “radicalisation” in the State.

A day after bomb blasts at a Christian religious gathering near Kochi rocked the State, the BJP chief alleged that it indicates how the law-and-order situation in Kerala has deteriorated under the governments of the Congress and Left parties, and how “terrorism” is thriving. - PTI

Police on Monday formally recorded the arrest of the man who claimed responsibility for the bomb blasts at a Christian religious gathering in Kerala on Sunday that killed three persons and injured over 50 people.

A senior police officer said the arrest of the man, Dominic Martin, was recorded at 7 p.m.

The blasts were set off at a convention centre in Kalamassery near Kochi where a prayer meeting of the Jehovah’s Witnesses -- a Christian religious group that originated in the US in the 19th century -- was held on Sunday. - PTI

Martin Dominic, his wife, son and daughter had moved into the first floor of the house with three bedrooms around five-and-a-half years ago. He had given his then driver’s licence as the ID proof in which his name was mentioned as Martin V.D., son of V.P. Dominic

​Read more.​

Sunni leader Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musliyar on Sunday called upon the State government to initiate stringent action against those who try to upset the communal harmony in the State in the wake of the Kalamassery incident

The special investigation team led by S. Sasidharan, Deputy Commissioner (Kochi City), probing the multiple explosions at prayer convention in Kalamassery continued to interrogate Dominic Martin, the sole suspect to have surrendered before the police in Thrissur within hours after the incident, at the Kalamassery Police Armed Reserve camp.

He was set to be taken to the crime scene for evidence collection. The police are likely to record his arrest later in the day after medical examination.

The condition of four persons out of the 12 admitted in ICU after suffering burns in theblasts at at Kalamasseryremain extremely critical, said Kerala Minister for Health Veena George in Kochi

Among the critically injured were the mother and brother of a 12-year-old girl who died in the early hours of October 30, taking the death toll in the incident to three

The India chapter of Jehovah’s Witnesses has said that it is unwise to speculate about the motive of the perpetrator(s) behind the multiple blasts at their prayer convention held at Kalamassery.

In a release issued in Kochi on Monday, Jehovah’s Witnesses India said that over 2,200 attended the event “simply meant to benefit from free education about the Bible.”

Jehovah’s Witnesses is a millenarian Christian group, which does not believe in Christian Trinity but believes in Jesus as son of God and Jehovah as God. They follow a literal interpretation of the Bible, have no priests, and do not approve of traditional priesthood as it is practised in some of the other Christian groups. Several Christian denominations do not consider the Witnesses a Christian sect at all but feel that they are aligned closer to the Jewish faith.

An all-party meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday adopted a unanimous resolution to insulate Kerala’s secular democratic polity from “devious attempts to cause dangerous societal disunity”.

Read more.

Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has accused Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of trying to cover up his “corruption, ineptness and inefficiency” by terming the former “a communal person spitting communal venom.”

Talking to mediapersons in Kochi after visiting the Kalamassery blast site in Kerala and those injured in the incident, Mr. Chandrasekhar alleged that the Kerala government had “rolled out a red carpet for extremist elements in the State.”

The Indian Union Muslim League has lodged a police complaint against BJP Kerala vice president K.S. Radhakrishnan for “denigrating Kalamassery as a den of terror” and “for spreading communal venom” in the wake of the blasts at Kalamassery

The special investigation team probing the multiple blasts at a crowded Jehovah’s Witnesses prayer convention at Kalamassery has put up security surveillance outside a building at Athani in Ernakulam district reportedly owned by the prime suspect Dominic Martin. The building is located within the Chengamanad police stations limits under the Ernakulam Rural police.

The multi-storey building appears to be rented out to three persons employed at a company, while one room has been taken on rent for the safekeeping of equipment used for football training conducted by a retired police official on the adjoining ground.

The Kerala Police have registered three cases across Thiruvananthapuram and Pathanamthitta districts on charges of posting communally inflammatory social media posts against the backdrop of the multiple blasts at a crowded Jehovah’s Witnesses prayer convention at Kalamassery in Kochi on October 30, 2023.

The death toll from the blasts at a Christian religious gathering near this port city has risen to three, according to an official statement.

A 12-year-old girl from Malayattoor, who was hospitalised with 90% burn injuries, succumbed in the early hours of Monday (October 30), taking the death toll in the blast to three.

​Read more.​