14-year-old held for Odisha school blast

The police in the coastal Odisha city of Cuttack have arrested a 14-year-old boy in connection with the bomb explosion in the government school last week.

The incident that took place on July 1 inside a classroom at the Ayatpur Government High School had left more than 20 students injured.

Rajkumar Das, a class IX student of the school, carried the hand-made bomb in his school bag which accidentally fell out and exploded.

The minor was produced in the local chief judicial magistrate court, where his bail was rejected and he was sent to a juvenile home in Berhampur town in southern Odisha’s Ganjam district.

Das, who was also injured in the blast, admitted immediately after the incident that he picked up the explosive from the roadside thinking it was a fire cracker. However, it emerged during the investigations that the 14-year-old had carried similar bombs twice to the school which he exploded near the banks of the nearby Kathjori river.

Investigators also searched the boy’s residence but have failed to come up with any other evidence. Though the police arrested those responsible for the murders, they are yet to find out people who made bombs.