Parui, July 9: Police in Parui are in a bind over how to establish in court the two harsh charges under the Explosive Substances Act that have been slapped on a woman and her family members for taking part in a roadblock.

Police sources conceded that in an effort to "get back" at the woman, who had accused cops of torturing her, they had rushed to slap stringent sections on her to make her release difficult. The police's "enthusiasm" was stoked by chief minister Mamata Banerjee standing by the force for the action against the woman.

But now, while having to substantiate the applicability of Sections 3 and 4 of the Explosive Substances Act, 1908, the police are finding themselves in a spot of bother.

"The police have jeopardised their own position further by detailing the nature of the explosives recovered in the FIR drawn up against the woman and the other accused," a government panel lawyer said on condition of anonymity.

A senior Birbhum official said the use of crude bombs was considered "too trivial" to book the accused under the Explosive Substances Act. "The act is applied when explosives such as RDX is used and seditionists or terrorists are involved," the official added.

"Besides, the explosives were recovered from the road and not from the six arrested persons. The recovered items could have belonged to anybody.... The FIR virtually states why Sections 3 and 4 cannot be applied," he added.

A senior home department official said the two sections were applied only in cases where a person is caught possessing more than 10kg of RDX or other such bomb-making substances.

An additional district magistrate in Birbhum said the police would be "forced" to bring charges under "lighter" sections of the Explosives Act, 1884, in the chargesheet against the Parui woman and her family instead of the two stringent sections. Such sections of the Explosives Act, 1884, invite a maximum punishment of three years in jail.

What has compounded the police's problems is that one of the two witnesses went on record yesterday saying he was forced to give a false statement before a magistrate by a Trinamul leader. The witness, Mozammil Mondal, told this newspaper how he had been coerced into giving the false statement. The other witness, Ambia Mondal, is also unwilling to stand by his statement, according to a source.

"The police are in for some trouble as they will face a tough challenge proving the charges," an official said.

In the Suri court today, defence counsel Somnath Mukherjee filed a fresh plea for bail, requesting the chief judicial magistrate to tell the police to submit the case diary so that the case could be considered.

The police had not submitted the case diary yesterday despite a court order. They had said the diary was necessary for interrogating the woman in jail. Judges usually refrain from granting bail in cases of such gravity without taking a look at the diary.

Today, Mukherjee said the interrogation must have been completed and the diary should now be submitted. CJM Indranil Chatterjee directed the police to furnish the diary tomorrow so that the bail plea could be heard.