No leads in MEG blast case

Ashwin Raj / TNN / Jul 15, 2006, 00:04 IST

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Police investigations have reached a dead end while the army too has not been able to trace the source of the device so far.

BANGALORE: Two months after four-year-old Susairaj and his neighbour Prashanth (14) were blown to pieces when an explosive device detonated in their house, abutting the MEG Centre in Banaswadi, the source of the explosive is still a mystery.
Police investigations have reached a dead end while the army too has not been able to trace the source of the device so far.
The police grappled with two possibilities either the boys picked up the device from the MEG campus or it was a memento belonging to some personnel.
Most people staying in the block are either serving or retired from the MEG. But police have given up on both as there was no way they could establish these possibilities.

"Probably it was a misfired ammunition which was carelessly discarded in the campus and the boys picked it up,"said a senior police officer.
"We're still waiting for more inputs from the military authorities,"he added. A senior officer of the KK&G Sub Area, who ordered an inquiry into the incident, said the explosive found in the victim's house was an automatic grenade launcher (AGL) ammunition. The source of the ammunition is, however, not known so far.

"Infantry units are periodically posted at the MEG Centre. The last infantry unit left the campus a year ago."The officer confirmed that AGL ammunitions are used by the infantry at the MEG Centre.
On a sleepy morning on May 12, locals at Nagannapalya, a quiet residential block, were woken up by a loud blast. The boys who were playing with the explosive were blown to bits.
Now, several weeks later, fear is still apparent in the neighbourhood and residents are reluctant to talk about the ghastly deaths of the two young boys.
MEG personnel Pandian, who lost his only child, Susairaj, has moved to another house in the block, while Prashanth's parents returned to their house several weeks after the incident. Prashanth's father Inbunathan had retired from service a few years ago.
"We don't know anything about the bombs. Young boys from the neighbourhood often sneak into the MEG campus while playing,"said a resident.
A reconstruction of the scene before the explosion said the boys were sitting on a cot with Prashanth holding the explosive between his legs and hammering it when it went off. Susairaj was sitting nearby with a ball. There were deposits of the explosive material on the ball and hands of the victims.

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