A state armed police jawan near the blast site in West Midnapore. Picture by Swarup Mondal

Nov. 3: The West Midnapore blast probe is focusing on a couple who head the Lalgarh squad of the CPI (Maoist), arguably the rebels’ most lethal strike force, police sources said.

Sashadhar Mahato is in his 40s and wife Suchitra around 32, they added.

“The squad of 15 men and women, experts in carrying out explosions, mainly operate in Lalgarh and Belpahari in West Midnapore. Since the Lalgarh forest is close to Salboni, they must have fled to hideouts in the jungle,” a criminal investigation department (CID) officer said.

Police records say the squad had planted a crude landmine in Lalgarh forest in 2006, which injured a bomb disposal squad officer and four other policemen when they tried to defuse it. “Sashadhar and Suchitra had plotted to blow up a forest bungalow in 2004,” an officer said.

The investigators say that the shrapnel from yesterday’s attack were unlikely to have pierced the bullet-proof car of the chief minister -- who may have been the target – which crossed the spot about 15 minutes before the blast.

“They used ball bearings which have an impact similar to bullets fired from semi-automatic weapons,” an officer said.

The blast hit the pilot car of Union steel minister Ram Vilas Paswan’s convoy near Midnapore town as he returned from a Jindal Steel investment event in Salboni. A pellet the size of a marble was taken out from the chest of one of the six injured policemen, a doctor said today.

Bridge cops face heat

Three policemen tasked to guard the bridge over the Kalaichandi canal, near which the blast occurred, have been suspended.

“We have suspended three policemen. After a probe is conducted and the guilty (in the security lapse) are identified, serious action will be taken against them. The government will not make any distinction between a senior and a junior officer,’’ home secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti said.

He added: “I cannot deny that yesterday’s incident was a major lapse on the part of the state government.”

The suspended policemen are inspector Alok Chakraborty, called from Burdwan for the security operation, and constables Arun Bose and Ratan Mullick of West Midnapore. “They are under suspension on the charge of dereliction of duty,” said Rajesh Kumar Singh, West Midnapore superintendent of police (SP).

The home secretary said state director-general of police A.B. Vohra, who visited the blast site this morning, would hand a report to the chief minister tonight.

Six people were arrested today in the Maoist strongholds of Salboni and Lalgarh for allegedly helping the rebels plant the device. “We have arrested six persons. We have got some clues but don’t want to reveal them now,” SP Singh said.

The state has requested the Centre to send back the six CRPF companies withdrawn from Bengal’s Maoist-hit districts for the upcoming polls in six states, the home secretary said.