Farmer held for planting pipe bombs

COIMBATORE: A 48-year-old farmer was arrested on Friday for planting two pipe bombs at a traffic signal in Kangeyam in Tirupur district on Thursday evening.
The police identified the farmer as V Gurusamy of Nathakadaiyur village near Kangeyam. They found an address along with the letter that was placed with the bombs, which led them an employee of his brother-in-law.Police said the farmer had planted the bombs to implicate his brother-in-law, Velusamy, and settle a score with him.
Gurusamy sought to mislead police by writing a letter that the bomb was intended for BJP’s Srirangam bypoll candidate Subramanian, and left the address hoping that the police would believe it was planted by Velusamy. Gurusamy had purchased explosives meant for quarrying from a person in Chennimalai in Erode district. A team of police have begun investigation to find the supplier. Police have also mounted vigil on all explosives godowns and stone quarries in the district.
“We nabbed Gurusamy from his house in Nathakadaiyur village and booked him under the Explosive Substances Act,” said Tirupur superintendent of police Amit Kumar Singh.
After day-long interrogation, he was produced before a court and remanded. Police said Gurusamy and Velusamy bought acres of land together but got into a disagreement. Gurusamy went to the court and a trial is underway. But he wanted to teach his brother-in-law a lesson and came up with the idea of planting the bomb.
“He purchased the explosives, made the crude device and kept it in a plastic bag atop the switch box of a traffic signal on Thursday evening,” police said. Police said Gurusamy bought 300g of gelatin sticks and two detonators from a person in the neighbouring district and bought two steel pipes from a shop at Nathakadiyur.
He stuffed gelatin in the pipes and sealed it with bolts. Gurusamy learnt how to handle explosives from workers who dug a well in his farm, police said.
On the scrap of paper left with the bomb, he wrote, ‘M Ramasamy of Tirupur Road, Kangeyam’. When a team of police traced Ramasamy and found out about the dispute his employer Velusamy had with Gurusamy, everything fell in place to solve the case, police said.
“He left a letter with name of the BJP bypoll candidate, so that police would take immediate action and arrest his brother-in-law,” a police officer said. “Over 100 stone quarries are functioning in Tirupur district. We have begun operations to weed out illegal sales of explosives. We will intensify the checks on godowns and stone quarries in the coming days,” said Singh.