RAMANATHAPURAM
The District Munsiff-cum-Judicial Magistrate Court here has ordered shifting of TNT slabs, the high power explosives, recovered from the backyard of a house at Anthoniyarpuram in Thangachimadam on the night of June 25 to one of the three explosives godowns in nearby districts.
Passing orders on a petition filed by the police seeking permission to destroy the explosives, Judicial Magistrate P. Balamurugan, holding additional charge of the jurisdictional court in Rameswaram, ordered the shifting of the explosives based on the opinion given by the office of the Joint Chief Controller of Explosives, Chennai.
Considering the safety of the local people, the explosives – 199 TNT slabs, two types of safety fuse wires, 11 packets of gunpowder-like explosive substance, two landmines and 87 signal rounds – could be shifted, the Magistrate said. The order comes a day after the owner of the house and local people protested the delay in shifting the explosives and threatened to vacate their houses.
On getting the order copy on Wednesday, the police wrote to the head of the explosives godown in Sivaganga, requesting the official to depute a team to transport the explosives to the godown. “The explosives will be shifted soon after the team arrives,” Superintendent of Police Omprakash Meena said.
Soon after recovering the explosives, the district police wanted to destroy them near the site itself after the Madurai-based Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad suggested that the TNT slabs could be destroyed after being dismantled. However, the court wanted the opinion of explosives experts.
Subsequently, two Deputy Controllers of Explosives from Chennai inspected the explosives on July 3 and 6 and suggested that they could be transported to a godown. They told the court that a decision on destroying them could be taken after getting the results of the samples sent to the Forensic Sciences Laboratory, Chennai.
