Indus Valley Times

By Sukant Mohanty

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 1: A powerful bomb with a timer was found lying on the office premises of Talcher MLA Brajkishore Pradhan at Nandira in Odisha’s Angul district on Friday morning.

The incident occurred just a couple of hours before the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) lawmaker was scheduled to stage a two-hour-long road blockade on National Highway 53 in Angul demanding expansion of the road.

As part of this programme, MLA Pradhan’s supporters and party workers were scheduled to take out a rally from the office premises. Then, some workers spotted the object lying on the office premises. They immediately informed Pradhan who in turn passed the information to the police.

Subsequently, two teams from the Colliery police station and Bikrampur police station reached the spot, seized the object and put it away from the office premises.

The road close to the place was cordoned off. The bomb squad immediately rushed to the spot and seized the suspected device. The squad defused the bomb at a “safe” place.

“It was a strong explosive device. On the advice of Angul superintendent of police Sudhansu Sekhar Mishra, the bomb squad defused it with utmost care. The bomb mechanism, as told by the expert team, was perfect. The experts are examining in detail the materials used in the making of the bomb,” said Talcher Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Manas Barik.

The SDPO further informed that CCTV footage collected from the MLA’s office as well as adjoining places were being examined to trace out the culprits.

When contacted, legislator Pradhan said, “As we were about to take out a rally today, some conspirators may have planted the bomb to scuttle our plan. I believe my opponents might have planted the bomb to kill me as I have got elected from this place four times.  I thank the police for reaching the spot immediately and defusing the device. Otherwise, it would have caused a massive blast.”