Mumbai: Three men were arrested on Thursday for allegedly planting an explosive device near a school in Kalamboli, Navi Mumbai. The police claimed that the motive of the accused persons was to extort money from a builder by intimidating him.
Earlier on June 10, an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was discovered near the school. However, the police said that there was no terror angle to the case. The arrested men were identified as Sunil Sathe (35), resident of Pune; Manish Bhagat (45) and Deepak Dandekar (55), both residents of Navi Mumbai. A motorbike, laptop and mobile phone, which were allegedly used in the crime, too were seized.
“The trio were nabbed by a special investigation team formed to probe the case. Police had formed six investigating teams and analysed the footage of at least 40 CCTV cameras,” said Tushar Doshi, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime).
He further added that the accused had put together the IED using ammonium nitrate powder and gelatin sticks. They were in the stone-quarrying business and knew each other.
“Sathe and Dandekar were debt-ridden and wanted money, so they allegedly hatched the plan to carry out a blast near the builder's house to intimidate him and extort Rs 2 crore from him,” the officer said.
The house is close to New Sudhagad School. According to the police, the accused planned to threaten and extort money from other builders in the area too and plant bombs at their houses if money was not paid.
Earlier on June 9, the IED was planted on a handcart near the builder's house on June 9. The IED had timer and was supposed to go off around 10.30 pm, however it failed to explode due to some fault.
“It was spotted by a watchman on June 10, the first day of school. The device was defused with the help of a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) team. The Anti-Terrorism Squad had also joined the probe,” said the officer.
