Margao, May 10 (TNN): Around 50-60 countrymade crude bombs and raw materials that went into their preparation were recovered from the site of Thursday's blast at Camarabhat, Sao Jose de Areal, by the bomb disposal unit of the National Security Guard (NSG) on Friday.
The seven-member team, led by Lt Col A Balakrishnan, which flew in from the national capital, conducted the exercise of checking out the blast site around 4pm.
During the 90-minute operation, NSG sleuths fished out from the house substances such as cow dung, pebbles, some kinds of powder, etc, stored in polythene bags, besides tin and plastic containers, apart from the crude bombs.
A mobile phone was also recovered from the house by the NSG sleuths.
Margao: A day after a blast at Camarabhat, Sao Jose de Areal, a National Security Guard (NSG) team arrived in Goa to probe the blast.
The unexploded crube bombs were taken into possession by the NSG team for disposal, while the substances, believed to be used for bomb-making, will be sent for forensic examination to verify the nature of the materials/chemicals that went into their preparation, police sources said.
Officiating South Goa SP Karthik Kashyap and DySP Mohan Naik supervised the operations.
Earlier in the day, a team of Karnataka's Internal Security led by DySP S R Naidu as well as a team of IB sleuths visited the site and took stock of the explosion scene.
Firmly ruling out any terror angle into the incident, Kashyap categorically said that Paplu Mulgund who died in the blast on Thursday used to assemble crude bombs in the house and use them for hunting wild animals, which he had turned into his supplementary source of livelihood.
The deceased belonged to the nomadic Harinshikari tribe of Karnataka which is notorious for making and using such types of crude bombs for poaching wild animals, police sources said. The South Goa police have booked the case under the Explosive Substances Act.
"We have probed into all angles of the case. Relatives, colleagues, acquaintances of the deceased, as also eye witnesses, were summoned by us and questioned thoroughly, following which we have come to the conclusion that the deceased was in no way related to any terror module or group; this was an isolated incident," Kashyap told mediapersons.
For a living, Paplu was engaged in the task of cleaning and cutting fish at the SGPDA market at Margao. He took to this activity as many of his relatives are also engaged in this business for a long time. "To supplement his income, Paplu had turned to poaching wild animals in the jungles of Ponda and selling the meat to a lot of people," said Kashyap.
The crude bombs were used by him alone as poaching aids, Kashyap added. "So far, we have not come across a single evidence to suggest that he would sell these bombs to others," said Kashyap, when asked if Paplu could have been part of a larger network of poachers.
Police sources said all the five injured-one has been shifted to GMC, Bambolim, while the rest are undergoing treatment at Hospicio Hospital, Margao-are safe.
Kashyap said the Goa police would soon launch a drive against persons letting out their premises without intimating the police or filling out the mandatory tenant verification form. "We will soon book cases against such people under IPC Section 188," said Kashyap. The owner of the house where Paplu was staying on rent had not complied with the statutory requirement, police sources said.