Kolkata: Sleuths of the West Bengal special task force (STF) visited Friday the plastic recycling factory at Sujapur in Malda district. A huge blast had occurred in the factory Thursday killing six people. A team of forensic experts also collected samples from the site, informed an official.
Commissioner of Malda division Syed Ahmed Baba and other senior officers of state police went to the spot.
When contacted, a senior officer of the state STF said, “We have visited the site twice. We have seen the entire area and investigations are at a very early stage. We have spoken to a few locals, but more facts need to be checked.” Whether the blast was due to explosives or mechanical glitches was being investigated, he added.
The high-intensity blast Thursday has triggered a political slugfest. The opposition BJP demanded an NIA probe into it and the ruling Trinamool Congress asked the saffron party not to politicise the issue.
The blast also ticked off a war of words between the Raj Bhavan and West Bengal government. Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar asked Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to ‘contain illegal bomb- making’. However, the message did not go down well with the government.
West Bengal government’s home department, which is helmed by Banerjee herself, retorted sharply. It said the blast had nothing to do with ‘illegal bomb-making’ and that the governor should remain within his constitutional jurisdiction before ‘making any such comment’.