The Thiruvananthapuram Rural police on Sunday discovered a huge cache of explosives, including gunpowder and other chemicals and ingredients used for major fireworks, from a cluster of buildings at Muddakkal, near Attingal, on Sunday.
The cache, according to the police, belongs to Surendran and his son Umesh of Kazhakuttam.
Puttingal
Surendran is one of the contractors who handled the fireworks at the Paravur Puttingal Devi Temple.
The police, according to R. Chandrasekharan Pillai, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Attingal), had cordoned off the buildings with policemen posted on guard duty.
“We will wait for explosives experts to defuse the entire lot and collect samples, after which we can quantify the cache,” he said.
Large quantity
The cache was a ‘considerably large quantity’, with guesstimates pegging it at over 1,000 kilograms.
The police had found from documents discovered in the buildings that the cache belonged to Surendran and Umesh, and that the storage licence for the stock reportedly expired by March 31, 2016.
The exact quantity, the permits to store the explosives and other details would be ascertained by Monday, the police said.
Raids
Meanwhile, the Kazhakuttam police, who conducted raids on Surendran’s residence at Thekkemukku near Menamkulam here, have registered two cases against one Vamadevan of Kariyil on charges of illegal storage of explosives.
Tip-off
Raids conducted based on a tip-off on Vamadevan’s house had resulted in the seizure of a couple of gunny bags of firecrackers as well, Kazhakuttam Circle Inspector I V. Baburaj said.
It belongs to one of the contractors of Paravur temple fireworks.
