Truck with 10 tonnes of explosives seized

KOZHIKODE: In a major haul, police seized a

truck

load of

explosives

weighing nearly 10 tonnes concealed under sacks of onion from near the inter-state border at Thakarappadi near Muthanga in

Wayanad

district on Thursday morning.

The seized substances included 95 sacks of ammonium nitrate (each weighing 50kg), 189 boxes of commercial explosive Ideal Power-90 (each weighing 25kg) and 20 boxes of fuse wire. The explosives were concealed under 96 sacks of onion in the truck which had a Karnataka registration.

Sultan Bathery police arrested four persons, including the driver and cleaner of the truck, under the Explosives Act and Explosive Substances Act.

The arrested have been identified as truck driver Sathyaneshan (59) and cleaner Krishna Kumar (40), from

Deshamangalam

in Thrissur . Police also arrested Tamil Nadu natives, Ranganathan (38) and Surali Rajan, (36) who were escorting the truck in a car.

Acting on a tip off, police intercepted the truck at Thakarappadi around 7am .

Sultan Bathery police said that the explosives were being transported from Bengaluru to

Koduvally

in Kozhikode district.

Sultan Bathery inspector of police M D Sunil said that as per preliminary information, the explosives are suspected to be meant to be supplied to granite quarries. He said that investigations are on to find the consignee of the seized explosives.

District police chief Rajpal Meena visited the spot.