New Delhi: The Centre has decided to handover the probe into the October 2 bomb blast in Burdwan in West Bengal to National Investigation Agency (NIA) after the state government gave in-principle approval to it.
The decision to hand over the case to NIA was taken in view of international ramifications of the case where some nationals from neighbouring country Bangladesh were also allegedly involved in this, official sources said here.
A notification was issued under the NIA Act and the agency will be registering an FIR tomorrow, the sources said.
The Union Home Ministry had received reports from central agencies and the state government about the incident in which two suspected militants -- Shakil Ahmed and Sovan Mandal -- were killed and another man Hasan Saheb was injured in the explosion at a house.
Grenades, chemicals used in making explosives, a book on how to trigger explosion, jihadi literature, a video on jihadi training and a map of important locations in Burdwan district were seized by a CID team from the house.
A large number of watch dials, SIM cards and other tools required to make improvised explosive devices were also seized from the house.
Mamata Banerjee's government in West Bengal, which was initially reluctant to accept that the incident in Burdwan had suspected terror links, handed over the case to the state CID after material collected from the site of the incident showed that some terror group was assembling bombs in the house and were planning to carry out a strike.
Four persons, including two women, have been arrested so far in the case.
Arch political rivals BJP and CPI(M) are united in asking the Centre for handing over the case to NIA for a probe as they believed that the state government was trying to hush up the matter.
Meanwhile, a highly-placed West Bengal government source said, "We have informed the Centre about the incident and no opinion has been given from the state government side."
"The Centre has the powers to initiate a suo motu probe in this regard and this is what the Ministry of Home Affairs has done," the source said.
The source said, "State government has the copy of the MHA order dated today which clearly says that NIA has taken up the matter to probe suo motu.”
"The Centre, while initiating a suo motu probe by NIA, can also work with the respective state government's police, other agencies and other state governments, if required so," the source said.
