Woman killed in Ara blast identified as Ballia resident

Bihar Police on Saturday identified the woman killed in the Ara civil court as Rina Gaud of Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh. They suspected that the woman was known to 2009 Ara court blast convict Lambu Sharma, who escaped from custody after the explosion along with another prisoner on Friday.

Bhojpur SP Akhtar Hussain said: “We have identified the woman and sent a team to her village to get more details on her connection with Lambu Sharma. We have got important leads in the case.” The police had found the woman’s cellphone from the spot. They were still investigating if Rina blew herself up in the court or the bomb went off accidentally.

A constable was also killed and 18 people were injured in the blast.

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The officials in Ballia, however, identified the woman as Nagina Devi (37) of Shivpur Deeyan village and said that the Bihar Police have picked three persons from the village to find out her antecedents.

Sub-inspector Dharmendra Chaudhary, who accompanied the police team from Bihar, said Nagina Devi’s daughter Soni (25), her sister-in-law Munni Devi and neighbour Madhusudan Singh were picked up and questioned.

A villager said Nagina was last seen there a week ago. He also said, “Nagina, a daily wage labourer, often used to go elsewhere and rarely stayed in the village.”