Police defuse explosive device in Wardha

Nagpur, Oct 16 (UNI) An explosive device camouflaged as a video compact disc (VCD) player and containing about 100 grams of ammonium nitrate and as many as 36 detonators was defused by the police in Wardha district in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra today. According to the police, the device was delivered to a shop in Wardha in a gift-wrapped box of a reputed make of VCD players yesterday.

The box was delivered by an unidentified person last afternoon, saying that it was for the owner Sayyed Yusuf Mehmood, who was not in the shop at the time, the police said.

Mr Mehmood came to the shop a little while later, removed the wrapping and opened the box, only to find that the screws on the VCD player were loose.

Growing suspicious, he opened the player and found some cotton atop the parts inside, the police said. He immediately alerted the police, who took the box into their possession and summoned the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) from Nagpur. Men from the BDDS reached Wardha in the early hours today, and defused the device, the police said.

The police are now making enquiries with Mr Mehmood and the sales staff in his shop. They are also preparing a sketch of the person who delivered the box to the shop.

UNI