According to malad police who are investigating the case, some unidentified persons caused three ‘sutli bombs’ to explode in the premises of the college when examination for the Business Communications paper was in progress. The college authorities postponed the paper to March 12.

Two of the crackers, police said, were placed on the third floor (in classroom number 25 and the toilet) and the third was kept in a washroom near the college library on the fourth floor. They exploded between 7.30 am and 8.15 am.

“The crackers were timed in such a way that they exploded within a few minutes of each other. The persons responsible for this had tied the wick of the crackers to the end of a burning agarbatti,” said Senior Police Inspector Maruti Rathod from Malad police station.

Rathod further informed that the bursting of the cracker which was kept under the stage in the classroom on the third floor caused a few windows to vibrate, resulting in a minor injury to a student. “The window panes of the classroom were very old and loose, because of which, when the cracker exploded, a part of the window pane at the end of the classroom fell on the head of a student, identified as Ravi Behra, and injured him. However, he was given medical attention on time and is not in any danger,” he added.

“The modus operandi of the act makes it clear that this was the doing of some students of the college, who were probably not prepared for the exams and thought of this mischief as an effective way to get the exams postponed. There can be no other possibility as no person is allowed to enter the college without producing his or her exam hall ticket. However, in such situations, it would be very difficult to apprehend the culprit as there were 760 students who were appearing for the examination at the point of time,” an officer investigating the incident said.

The Malad police have registered a case under Section 435 (mischief by fire) of the Indian Penal Code against the unidentified persons and are conducting inquiries into the incident.