It was a May Day that the City will want to forget in a hurry. Two bombs, placed in duffel bags in adjacent compartments of a long-haul train, exploded mere minutes after the train pulled into the Chennai Central Railway Station on Thursday, killing one and injuring 14 others. Identified as low-intensity incendiary devices, the blasts managed to decimate most of compartments S4 and S5 of the Kaziranga Express (No 12509), which departed from Bangalore on Wednesday night for Guwahati. The train pulled into Platform No 9 at 7.08 am and quite a few people alighted to get food and refreshments. Most people stayed on the train because they were bound for Guwahati, when the first bomb exploded in S4 at 7.18 am. Even as people were trying to figure out what happened, a second bomb exploded in coach S5 at 7.21 am.
“We were on Platform No 5 when we heard a loud sound like a pistol shot,” explained Bala, a porter who was one of the first persons on the scene. As a group of them rushed to the spot across tracks and through trains, a second, louder blast was heard. “When we got there, a woman covered in blood was trying to leave the train. We immediately pulled her out and put her on a luggage trolley and pushed her towards the medical centre,” Bala recounted. Thankfully, a responsible passenger had the sense to call the 108 ambulance service at 7.23 am, after which nine vehicles were rushed to the station in the next 10 minutes. The efforts, however, could not help save 24-year-old TCS employee Swathi, seated just over where the bomb was placed. She suffered multiple burns and died on the platform. Fourteen other people were hospitalised.
Two men, who were hiding in the toilets of the compartment were detained by the police and interrogated, but not arrested. IB sources in Delhi said the duo had “no links” with the explosions. Police in Karnataka, meanwhile, detained one person at Nettana in Dakshin Kannada district. Condemning the incident, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa ordered a CB-CID probe and assured that the security measures had been tightened. She also rebuffed Centre’s offer of sending NIA and NSG teams to probe the blasts.
“The SRM medical ambulance took the first girl to the GH, while some of the others were helped by RPF to their own vehicles. The last injured person was taken to the hospital before 8.05 am,” said a 108 ambulance source, adding that the quick response helped save half of the 14 people hospitalised.
By the time the city police reached the spot, they were met with puddles of blood on Platform No 9. As the bags with the explosives had been kept under the seat, the bottom of the compartment had been splintered. With every intelligence agency from the CB-CID to RAW sending their officers to the scene, investigators compiled over 200 bits of evidence, including detonators and nails, leading them to believe it was a “crudely-built bomb that had some sort of primitive timer”.
Eventually, all the investigators hopped onto the damaged bogeys and were towed away to the yard at 10.05 am. After a two-hour wait, new bogeys were attached and the train began its much-delayed journey to Guwahati.
Not only was this the first bomb blast to rock Chennai in three decades, it struck at the heart of Chennai’s busiest transit stop - the 141-year-old station that handles just under 4 lakh passengers every day. The only reason why investigators believe the bomb was intended to explode at Chennai was because of the timing.
Delayed by 85 minutes, the bombs exploded exactly after the train arrived at Central. However, both Police Commissioner J K Tripathy and DGP K Ramanujam agreed that the “bomb was probably not intended for Chennai,” but conceded that the timing was suspicious.
Police had information on possible blasts?
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