A 20-year-old man and six others have been arrested in Chhattisgarh for allegedly attempting to murder a man by gifting him a music speaker in which they had planted a two-kilogram Improvised Explosive Device (IED). The prime accused had a one-sided love for the victim’s wife and wanted to get rid of him.
The incident took place in Manpur village in Khairagarh-Chhuikhadan-Gandai district on Friday. The victim, Afsar Khan, is an electrician who runs a small shop. A few days before Friday, Khan received a nicely wrapped gift with his name on it and a fake India Post logo on it. The sender had not written his name or the reason for sending the gift.
Khan’s shop was shut when the gift was delivered. On Friday, when Khan reached his shop and opened the gift, he saw a music speaker, but much heavier than a normal music system.
Suspecting something amiss, Khan called up the local Gandai police. After a preliminary investigation, a Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) reached the spot, and a dog from the Squad detected the explosives hidden in the speaker.
“At first, it was a blind case with no clues. But we started searching for the accused based on technical evidence, which led us to the prime accused,” said an officer.
The main accused, Vinay Verma, is an ITI diploma holder and works as an electrician. He also installs bore-wells, due to which he has experience in conducting blasts.
The police seized Vinay Verma’s phone, which showed he was searching for how to make bombs and not get caught by the police. Vinay Verma reportedly assembled the bomb inside the music system using a soldering technique with the help of online tutorials. The bomb would have automatically triggered if the music system’s plug had been inserted in the electric board’s socket.
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Vinay Verma told the police he was confident that he would not get caught and was shocked when the police traced him. When questioned about the motive, Vinay Verma said he had a one-sided love for Khan’s wife, and he had feelings for her since school days.
Incidentally, Khan told the police that his wife had alerted him that Vinay Verma used to stalk her before marriage and could harm them. Khan said his wife’s caution made him suspicious of the gift.
During his questioning, Vinay Verma spilled the beans on his accomplices who helped him to source the IED from a stone quarry in Durg district and those who helped him to deliver the gift and create the fake postal stamp on it.
Vinay Verma’s arrested aides have been identified as Parmeshwar Verma, 25, Gopal Verma, 22, Ghasiram Verma, 46, Dilip Dhimar, 38, Gopal Khelwar, and Khilesh Verma, 19. The police, however, said that the three accused who helped smuggle the explosives may not have known how Vinay Verma was going to use them.
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The police have seized explosive materials and other evidence linked to the crime. The police said they will also be questioning the stone quarry owner about how the explosives were siphoned off.
Incidentally, another such incident took place in neighbouring Kabirdham district in April 2023, where a 25-year-old newlywed man and his 30-year-old brother were killed when the speakers of a home theatre received as a wedding gift, exploded while they were trying to set it up at home.
In that case, one school dropout, Sarju Markam,33, who worked as an auto mechanic, was arrested. Markam was upset after being spurned by a woman – though he was married and a father of two – and planned the revenge to murder her husband.
