One more held for planting bomb-like substance in train

One more person has been arrested in connection with the planting of a bomb-like device in the unreserved compartment of the Puducherry-bound Dadar Chalukya express train here on January 8.

The accused Sivasankaran hailing from Panaiyur in Tiruvannamalai district in neighbouring Tamil Nadu was arrested yesterday and remanded in judicial custody today, police said.

One Shankar from Thuraiyur in Tiruchirapallai was arrested in connection with a cheating case a few days ago and during interrogation, he confessed that he had developed the bomb-like device in consultation with Sivasankaran by procuring detonators and gel type explosive capsules on the pretext of drilling work for a borewell, police said.

Shankar also told Puducherry CID personnel, who arrested him, during interrogation that he planted the device in a suitcase which was abandoned in the compartment, police said.

The bomb squad had defused the device which was found in a metallic container connected to a cell phone in the suitcase which also carried the slogan 'Mayan Calendar'. The materials had since been sent for examination in the Forensic science Lab in Hyderabad whose report is awaited, sources said.

It was alleged that Shankar had made the device to settle scores with an astrologer of Thuraiyur who he suspected was responsible for his mother's illness.

The two accused have been lodged in the central prison.