Gift bottle explodes, injures woman

MUMBAI: A 45-year-old woman, Rekha Gharat, was injured after she opened a gift bottle, meant for her 21-year-old son, Abhijit. The bottle exploded and the woman sustained injuries on her face and both the hands. She was admitted to KEM Hospital in Mumbai.
The incident took place on Thursday at around 8.30 pm. The matter was reported to the Padgah police.The bottle, wrapped in a gift pack, was sent through courier to Abhijit. He kept the bottle at home which his mother later opened and sustained injuries.
A state anti-terrorism squad with a sniffer dog reached Padgah on Friday afternoon and inspected the place. “We have just begun the inquiry into the matter. The packed bottle was for a specific person who was directed to open it. Initially it seems a case of personal enmity. We are not ruling out the terror angle. The samples have been taken and will be sent for chemical analysis,” a senior ATS officer told TOI. The police are also focusing on the terror angle. “We are checking records of the old suspects and if they could resurface in the recent times. Our discreet inquiries have begun too,” he added.
Padgah was in the news in 2002 when police arrested more than half a dozen youths allegedly belonging to the banned outfit, SIMI, for their role in the Ghatkopar, Vile Parle, Mumbai Central and Mulund train bomb blasts during 2002-2003.
A special Tada court has delivered its verdict in the case. Saquib Nachen, a Padgah resident and office bearer of SIMI has been convicted in the bomb blast cases along with several others. Three Padgah resident Farhan Khot, Nadeem Paloba and Adnan Mullah were acquitted in the blast cases for lack of evidence. A special Task Force had during the investigation of bomb blasts had seized a huge cache of sophisticated firearms hidden in a well in Padgah.