Theft of explosives: Extremist links ignored

KASARGOD: The police are soft-pedalling the investigation into the theft of  explosives from a godown owned by a private individual in Parakkalayi in the Ambalathara police station limits recently.  Though IG K Sreejith had cautioned that coastal areas of the district have become safe haven of extremist elements,the police are not  conducting a probe into the incident in that direction. They are conducting the investigation based on quarries. Recently a stone and a hexameter were found on railway tracks in Kumbla and Manjeswaram, but the probe into the incident has almost ceased. The police  are looking the other way in explosives case too. They have not probed where the stolen explosives have gone. Instead, they reached the conclusion that the explosives might have been used in the quarries. Most of the granite quarries in the eastern areas of the district are functioning illegally without licence. The explosives required here are supplied by agents. The records of the godown from where the explosives had been stolen were not found either in the Village Office or the Panchayat Office. But the man who owned the illegal godown managed to secure the licence. This  points to the corruption involved in securing explosive licence.