NEW DELHI, Jan 9: At least 50 persons were injured, six of them seriously, when a powerful bomb exploded opposite the Delhi Police headquarters this afternoon.The bomb which was placed under a fruit cart in a lane between the Andhra Vanitha Mandal office and the Income-Tax Office went off at 2:08 p.m. when the area was teeming with the lunch-hour crowd. The impact of the explosion was such that it shattered the window panes of the Andhra Vanitha Mandal office and the adjacent office of the Delhi Vidyut Board Chief Engineer. An unmanned police assistant booth just behind was badly damaged.
It also left behind shattered windows in another building almost 200 metres behind the explosion site. However, a electric sub-station, which was barely 15 feet away from the spot, escaped any damage.
An Assistant tax officer at the Income Tax office, Baljeet Kaur, lost her left leg, while Gurcharan Singh, who also works nearby, suffered the same fate.
The incident has sent shock waves throughout the Capital, as theexplosion took place only 150 metres from the police headquarters. Realising this, the police were more busy in damage-control exercises.
The fact that they were at a loss was evident when a sniffer dog arrived at the site one hour after the incident. After preliminary investigations, Additional Commssioner of Police (Crime) B K Gupta said that the bomb was similar to the 22 earlier explosions in the Capital last year. The last explosion on December 30 inside a Blueline bus left behind 2 dead and 27 injured.
However, Gupta or any other official failed to give details on possible suspects. Eyewitnesses, on the other hand, said that a new fruit vendor had come to the area minutes before the bomb exploded. His face was covered and when other vendors raised objections to his presence, he is believed to have entered into an argument.
A private security officer, Shyam Lal, said: "He suddenly disappeared, and the within minutes the bomb went off."
Later in the evening, the Union Home Ministry asked two
former Delhi Police Commissioners to review the law and order situation in the Capital and suggest precautionary measures to be taken by the government. The former police chiefs, Nikhil Kumar and M B Kaushal, will be part of three-member team, to be headed by a Special Secretary (CS) in the Union Home Ministry, Ashok Kumar. This was decided at a meeting attended by senior officials of the ministry including Union Minister of State for Home Mohammad Moqbool Dar and Home Secretary B P Singh.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
