When explosives were planted at police premises across Tamil Nadu in 1999
Early on May 30, 1999, a low intensity explosion occurred in the Victoria Students’ Hostel at Triplicane in Chennai. Though none was injured in the
Early on May 30, 1999, a low intensity explosion occurred in the Victoria Students’ Hostel at Triplicane in Chennai. Though none was injured in the blast that left a hole in the wall, the incident took place amid escalating intelligence inputs of possible sabotage. It also happened a year after the sensational Coimbatore serial bomb blasts case that left 47 people dead and hundreds of others injured. Soon after the explosion, the Tamil Nadu police launched a predawn operation by conducting simultaneous searches in major cities across the State. Investigators suspected that explosives could have been planted at major railway stations, bus stands, commercial streets, places of worship and other areas of public gathering. Bombs at police premises But, little did they anticipate that bombs could have been placed on their own premises that are guarded by armed police personnel round-the-clock. Bags of explosives with timer devices were found in the Police Commissionerate, Inspector General of Police, Prison Office Complex, in Chennai, Variety Hall Road Police Quarters, Coimbatore and the Cantonment Police Club, Tiruchi. Sleuths of the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad were called in and the explosives were defused.
Timely intervention of police teams averted a major embarrassment to the force within hours of the first blast in Chennai. Some pamphlets accusing the State and prison authorities of harassing innocent Muslim prisoners arrested in connection with the Coimbatore serial blasts were found in the scene of crime. The then Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi convened an urgent press conference to announce that explosives weighing about 5 kg stuffed in shopping bags were seized. He ordered the Crime Branch CID to investigate the case and unravel the conspiracy. The CB-CID formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the five cases registered by the local police and then transferred to the agency. “The CB-CID probe could establish that these were not stray incidents but parts of a larger conspiracy hatched by hardcore fundamentalists to retaliate and wreak vengeance against the State for the perceived/alleged ill-treatment of Muslim prisoners arrested and detained in various prisons in the cases of Coimbatore serial blasts that occurred on February 14, 1999,” a senior investigator wrote in an article published in a police journal. Explosives transported by train The suspicion that the planting of bombs at different locations in Tamil Nadu could be part of a conspiracy to cause blasts in other parts of the country came true when the railway police seized explosives from the Kochi-Kurla Express.
The BriefWire