From Lebong valley area Six held for `blast plan' during agitation

VIVEK CHHETRI, TT, 04 Nov 2018, Darjeeling: Six youths have been arrested here on charges of planning an explosion during last year's Gorkhaland agitation.

Police said Puran Tamang, 43, Shekar Rai, 35, Bhaskar Rai, 39, Vishal Bomjan, 29, Safal Lama, 30 and Pradeep Thapa, 30, were arrested from the outskirts of Darjeeling. 

The youths were sent to five days police custody by a Darjeeling court on Saturday.

Four of the accused are residents of Harsingh Hatta, from where they were held, while Bomjan hails from Bannockburn tea garden.

Pankaj Prasad, an assistant public prosecutor, said: "All of them have admitted that they were involved in incident in different capacities. Now, they have assured to help the investigation by assisting in arresting other co-accused, identification of their hideouts, recovery of explosives, bomb making materials and others." 

Fourteen people, including Bimal Gurung, who is currently on the run, have been named in the FIR.

According to sources, the police had raided Harsing Hatta on September 4 last year on a tip-off that some Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supporters were planning to cause explosion in some undisclosed locations in Darjeeling.

"The police had recovered a 390 gm plastic packet with `power gel' `explosive' written on it apart from detonator with wire, 77 pieces of metal spinsters, 3 live cartridges, two improvised fired bullet heads, among others," said Prasad.