Gangarampur: 3 kids injured in explosion, probe begins

BALURGHAT: A full-fledged police investigation has been initiated following an explosion which injured three children in Gangarampur occurred on Sunday.

No arrest has been made so far and the cause of the explosion is yet to be ascertained. The injured children were identified as Debajit Dutta (9), Soumyajit Dutta (5) and Papai Dutta (6). Initially they were rushed to the Gangarampur Super Specialty Hospital from where one of them was shifted to Kolkata as his condition turned critical. Police said the incident took place in Gangarampur’s Basuria area. The children were residents of the same area. According to a police source, they were out of the house to play when suddenly a loud sound was heard.

“As the family members reached the spot hearing the sound, they saw the three children in a bloody state. An injured child was shifted to Kolkata due to his deteriorating condition. The remaining two are undergoing treatment at Gangarampur Super Specialty Hospital,” said the source. However, it is not yet clear how exactly the explosion took place.

The initial assumption of the police is that the mobile battery burst, which perhaps caused the explosion. Police are monitoring the whole incident. However, before the election, the explosion caused a stir in the area. The police source has stated that the three children had picked up something like a mobile phone battery. “They were playing with that. An explosion occurred when it was thrown. There was a loud noise. The entire area was covered in smoke and the three children were injured as a result of this explosion,” added the source. Soma Dutta, the mother of one of the children, said: “The children were playing next to the house on Sunday. A loud sound of an explosion was heard when they threw something like a battery on the road.”

‘An injured child was shifted to Kolkata due to his deteriorating condition. The remaining two are undergoing treatment at Gangarampur Super Specialty Hospital’

SILIGURI:

Shikha Maitra, former president of Bharatiya Janata Mahila Morcha, Siliguri organisational committee, left BJP and joined Trinamool Congress (TMC). Papiya Ghosh, president of Darjeeling district Trinamool Congress (Plains) handed over the party flag to her on Monday in Siliguri.

Shikha Maitra has previously held several positions in the BJP and held the post of women’s president in 2021. Papiya Ghosh said that the joining was held on the instructions of Abhishek Banerjee, national general secretary of TMC.