Chennai: Explosive material inside what was thought to be a rocket launcher, which was secured by officials from a temple tank in Gangai Kondan temple in Mamampathi, was detonated safely by remote control on Friday. Police sources said they resorted to this step due to the uncertainty prevailing over when the bomb would go off and the consequent panic among the population residing in the area.
On August 25, an unidentified object found in the Tiruporur Gangai Kondan temple pond exploded and killed two persons and severely injured three others.
On that day, a group of three men had gathered outside the Gangai Kondan temple in Manampathi village in Thiruporur to celebrate the birthday of their friend when a box fell from a nearby tree. When their efforts to force open the box failed, they tried to kick it open and that's when it exploded.
Following that incident, Kanchipuram Sp, Kannan, Kanchipuram Range DIG, Then Mozhi and North zone IG, Nagarajan visited the spot and a team of police thoroughly inspected the temple, when they found more explosive such material in the dry temple pond.
A team of forensic experts and bomb squad secured the material and took it to the private godown in Murugamangalam in Kayaru. The officials conducted enquiries to find out the nature of the explosive material and the procedure to defuse the bomb but in vain. Meanwhile, on Friday, the officials detonated the material in a remote control operation on a dry lake bed in Manampathy. Police said that they buried the explosive material five feet into the ground and made it explode. The operation was successful but a white pungent-smelling fog engulfed the whole village, sources said.
