Criminal injured as bomb goes off in Ara

ARA/PATNA: A criminal belonging to a five-member gang, who checked in to the ‘Harkhen Kumar Jain Dharmashala’ at Ara in Bhojpur district from West Bengal on Thursday morning, was injured when a bomb in his possession went off inside the rest house around 6.40am.
The injured criminal has been identified as Vicky Paswan alias Brihaspati. He was rushed to the district sadar hospital at Ara from where the doctors referred him to Patna Medical College and Hospital.Four of Vicky’s associates managed to escape from the rest house after the explosion. Police, however, arrested Jitendra Kumar Singh, one more member of the criminal gang and a resident of Barrackpore in West Bengal, later in the day. A 9mm pistol was recovered from room number 110 of the rest house where the criminals were staying.
Officers of Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of state police and National Investigation Agency (NIA) have reached the site. A team of bomb detection and disposal squad and forensic experts from Patna also rushed to Ara following the blast.
Preliminary investigations revealed that it was Jitendra who had brought four criminals to Ara with a motive to kill his cousin Harendra Kumar Singh over a land dispute.
Ruling out any terror angle in the blast, Patna zonal IG Nayyar Hasnain Khan said Jitendra had hired the four West Bengal criminals to kill Harendra. “Harendra was shot at by Jitendra in May last year over a land dispute. An FIR was lodged in this connection with Mufassil police station in Ara against Jitendra and some of his family members. Jitendra had been evading arrest since then,” Khan said, adding Vicky’s statement was being recorded at PMCH.
Asked about the explosion, the IG said though it was a crude bomb, its power could be gauged from fact that two doors of the rest house were blown away.
Bhojpur SP Awakash Kumar said Jitendra’s parents had shifted to Barrackpore in West Bengal more than 35 years ago, but they had a share in 5 bighas of land at Ganghar village under Mufassil police station in Bhojpur district. He said that the room where the five suspects were lodged was sealed and their belongings would be examined by forensic experts. “The Aadhaar card of one of the criminals was recovered from the spot and efforts are on to establish the identities of the rest,” the SP added.