The ‘strange box’ that fell from the sky at Bholajote on Thursday. Picture by Kundan Yolmo

Siliguri, May 21: Harimohan Roy was on the way to his field when he saw a “strange box” with a small parachute floating in the air landing on the ground.

The farmer of Bholajote, close to Bagdogra and 20km from here, yelled and alerted others who found a small box with a rocket-like protruding thing and wires all over.

“I have never seen such a strange box before and felt that it might be a bomb dropped from a plane or some other cache of arsenal,” Harimohan said. “Some other villagers have also noticed it and all of them are worried.”

The over-alertness of the people soon led to a bomb scare in the village and the adjacent Tarbandha. As more villagers rushed to see the box, more opinions followed. “It seems to be a box filled with a bomb,” one of them said. “I feel our village has been selected because of its proximity with the Bagdogra air force station,” another countered him.

The confusion continued as officials from Bagdogra police station reached the spot and cleared the ground. Police inspected the box but did not touch it. They found the words Office of the DDGM (U), Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), New Delhi, printed on the rocket-shaped part and became confident that it was a gadget floated for collection of weather-related data.

“We did not take any chances and called the CID bomb squad,” said Sitaram Sinha, the deputy superintendent of police (crime) of Siliguri. “They confirmed that it was a weather gadget and brought it to the police station.”

IMD sources said they could not confirm the gadget unless shown but suspect it to be a radiosonde, a gadget used to check weather parameters like humidity and temperature.