The anti-terrorism squad are investigating a blast at Sarang chawl in Ghatkopar on Tuesday which killed one and damaged three houses.
The anti-terrorism squad (ATS) are investigating a blast at Sarang chawl in Ghatkopar on Tuesday which killed one and damaged three houses. The low-intensity blast inside a crowded locality sent the police in a tizzy, coming four days ahead of the Prime Minister’s Mumbai visit.
A team of ATS officers reached the spot late evening. A senior ATS officer said, “It was surely not a cylinder blast.” However, the squad failed to confirm the nature of the explosive. The blast took place in room no. 5 at round 12.15 pm. The house belongs to Kadiya Pujari from Borivali and was rented by Radheshyam Saroj.
Alpana Maikar, who lives in the next room, said, “There were four people living here, I don’t know their names. They were new and shifted here on April 10. They did not interact much with neighbours but sometimes borrowed water.”
Maikar said on Friday night, a woman came to stay with them. “They said she was a friend’s wife and would leave soon. But on Saturday she told me she was a medical student from Bihar. She left on Sunday morning with a huge bag and did not return. On Monday evening, 8-10 people came to their house.”
Initially, the police and residents thought it was a gas cylinder blast, but the fire brigade and Bharat Gas reports confirmed it was not. TK Satpal from Vikroli fire station said, “A cylinder blast would have left some gas.”
DCP Pratabsingh Patankar said, “The men living here were new and could not be identified so far.”
Meena Malkani, the agent who arranged the room for Saroj, said, “He came for a house three months ago. He said a few of his friends would live with him. They said they had an oil business in Chembur and lived in Sai Nath Nagar.”
But room owner Kadiya Pujari said, “My agent introduced them. She said she knew them.”
A few files, a passport, receipts of a hotel in Sion, bank pass books of IDBI and ICICI, one reliance mobile phone, a few clothes, an empty gas cylinder, an identity card of an Assam college with a photo of a certain Berendra Pasi have been seized.
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