East Medinipore: In a significant breakthrough, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday arrested two key conspirators linked to the December 2022 Bhupatinagar blast case amidst strong opposition from a disorderly crowd in West Bengal's East Medinipore district, resulting in injuries to an agency officer and the vandalisation of an official vehicle. The duo, Balai Charan Maity and Manobrata Jana, were arrested after extensive searches at five locations, including the house of Jana, where a crowd of local residents tried to obstruct the NIA team which raided the area early Saturday in connection with the West Bengal's Bhupatinagar blast case in which three persons were killed in December 2022.
According to the anti-terror agency, one NIA team member suffered minor injuries and the agency's official vehicle was also damaged as some miscreants in the crowd assaulted them. "The aggressive crowd tried to stop the NIA team and its security component from moving towards Bhupatinagar police station to complete the arrest formalities.
NIA has lodged a complaint at the local police station in this regard," said the NIA in a statement.Manobrata Jana, and the other arrested accused, identified as Balai Charan Maity, were found to have conspired to manufacture and explode crude bombs to spread terror, it said.
Sequence of events
Three persons were killed in the December 2022 explosion in the house of one Rajkumar Manna in village Naruabilla in East Medinipur district. "Manna himself was seriously in the blast, along with two others, Biswajit Gayen and Buddhadeb Manna. All three succumbed to their injures later."The state police initially registered an FIR on December 3, 2022 against the three men killed in the explosion but the provisions of the Explosive Substances Act were not applied.
Subsequently, the NIA said, a writ petition was filed before High Court at Calcutta with a prayer for invoking the relevant sections of the Act and transferring of the case to NIA. NIA took over the case on June 4, 2023, as per the High Court order dated March 21, 2023, and re-registered under various sections of law, including the Explosive Substances Act.During investigation, NIA uncovered the role of several other accused in the case, including the arrested accused, Manobrata Jana of village Naruabila, and Balai Charan Maity of Ninaruya Analberia.
"The two men had actively participated in the conspiracy to make crude bombs and had extended support for the same," said the NIA, adding "it had found the role of the two accused in its probe, which led to today's searches and arrests."The arrested accused will be produced before the Special NIA Court in Kolkata, as per law, added the agency.
