Bomb scare that hurt sentiments

KSCA fracas

The needle of suspicion originally pointed towards Pervez Rasool, a member of the Jammu & Kashmir under-22 team scheduled to participate in the Col CK Nayudu Trophy beginning here on Wednesday.

The signals pointed to the potential presence of a residue of some explosive substance in room Number 105 of the KSCA Clubhouse, occupied by Pervez.

The 21-year-old was picked by the police for questioning around 9:00 am, and spent the better part of eight hours at the police station.

“The entire security arrangements were outsourced by the KSCA to Micro Sec ATS, a Hyderabad-based company. One Venkatshesha was heading a team of 50 security guards. In fact, it was he (Venkatshesha) who was holding the gadget with three antennae and other paraphernalia when one antenna suddenly started showing some indication (through beeps) of some suspected explosive material. Once alerted, the police rushed to the spot with eight sniffer dogs early on Saturday morning,” said the jurisdictional police.

“However, even after a thorough search, we failed to identify any suspicious object. Later, it was concluded that due to some manufacturing defect, the gadget might have wrongly beeped.” But Venkatshesha was not ready to accept the police version, persisting that he alerted the police after carefully analysing the signals. “We didn’t want to take any risk and decided to send the bag to the Forensic Science Laboratory for further examination,” added the police.

The police claimed they did not “question any player but only spoke to them.” An officer said: “It cannot be termed as detaining or securing for questioning. Even Venkatshesha was not secured for an interrogation in this regard.”

Pervez was eventually released after his antecedents were probed, and there was no evidence of any wrongdoing on his part. The police maintained that they would await the forensic reports before deciding on the next course of action.

J&K team to stay on and play

The J&K cricket team has decided not to return to Kashmir from Bangalore after the arrest of two of its members by police on Sunday, reports DHNS from Srinagar.