The handcuffed CID constable on Saturday

Siliguri, Aug. 27: Police today said CID constable Kailash Roy planted explosives in an attempt to win accolades, but bank accounts throwing up amounts disproportionate to his income have punched holes in the theory.

Roy has been taken into custody along with two others for allegedly planting bombs in two petrol pumps at Air View More in Siliguri early on Friday and planning to do the same at the Indian Oil depot in New Jalpaiguri.

Once arrested, he allegedly sought to implicate a colleague, Biswajit Majumder, who has the reputation of being a crack cop. Majumder, who was detained by the police, was given a clean chit yesterday.

Roy and his associates — Paritosh Roy, a Group D staff of West Bengal State Electricity Board’s Hakimpara sector, and Purno Viswakarma, a driver — were caught with bombs in a Maruti van on Friday. All three are in police remand.

The police today said Roy had confessed to planting bombs at a school in Salkumarhat (Alipurduar) on the night of August 13, and he himself defused the explosives a few hours later, earning a pat on the back from his superiors.

“Kailash had an unimpressive record as a constable, unlike Biswajit. But he was good at defusing bombs. He wanted to be in the limelight and planted the bombs in the hope that he would get the assignment to defuse them,” said an official of the Jalpaiguri police.

Yesterday, inspector-general (north Bengal) K.L. Meena had said much the same: “He had received a pat on the back following his success in defusing the bombs at Salkumarhat. He had expected that he would be called this time too.”

But sources in the police scoffed at what they felt was a “simplistic” explanation.

They claimed that scrutiny of Roy’s bank accounts and other papers had revealed that he had accumulated money and assets that could not be explained given a constable’s monthly income of around Rs 10,000.

Officially, the police were tight-lipped about the bank accounts. “During interrogation, Kailash confessed that he had a hand in both episodes (Salkumarhat and Air View More),” was all that Achinta Gupta, the officer-in-charge of the Bhaktinagar police station, was willing to say.

Based on Roy’s confession, the police have tracked down a Hyundai Santro that was used in the Salkumarhat incident. It was recovered from a residential apartment in Bhaktinagar. “The vehicle is owned by one Asok Agarwal of Siliguri,” Jalpaiguri police superintendent Tripurari said. Efforts are on to trace Agarwal.

Officials said Roy has been taken to many outlets on Sevoke Road and at Jajodia Market from where he had procured the material needed to make explosives.