NEW DELHI, 3 October 2004 — The army yesterday found 18 more rockets and six live bombs, raising to 49 the number of explosives detected in the scrap brought from Iran to a local steel factory in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad town where an explosion killed 10 people and injured 15 on Thursday.
Army and forensic experts from Agra, who are scanning the eight scrap-laden trucks, found 18 more rockets yesterday, District Magistrate Santosh Kumar Yadav said. The factory — Bhushan Steel Company — has been sealed and the scrap-laden trucks brought out of the complex and parked near the Hindon River, where eight live explosives were defused on Friday night, he said.
Santosh Kumar, director of the forensic lab in Agra, said the samples collected from the spot showed it was military scrap. National security guard officials — Maj. K. K. Gauri and Capt. Viresh Sharma — who visited the factory did not rule out sabotage.
Senior Superintendent of Police Jai Narain Singh said the size of the rockets indicated that they belonged to the Iranian Army as the explosives measuring one meter to 1.25 meter were used by them. He said it was a clear case of negligence by customs officials at the Kandla port where the explosives landed in the scrap.
Meanwhile, the company’s general manager, V.S. Verma, and assistant general manager, Ompal Singh, who were arrested yesterday on charges on negligence have been remanded to 14 days judicial custody.
The Uttar Pradesh government was yesterday contemplating referring the Ghaziabad blast probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
On Friday, 25 rockets and rocket launchers were found in the scrap, which came from Iran.
“The issue involves several central agencies and it could be probed better by the CBI”, a senior state official said.
It is unclear how customs and excise officials, who were supposed to check the consignment of scrap in four trucks at several places en route from Kandla to Ghaziabad failed to detect the rockets.
Senior Superintendent of Police J.N. Singh said the role of the customs officials who cleared the consignment at Tughlakabad in south Delhi would be investigated.
