Date:12/10/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/10/12/stories/2003101207030400.htm

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Lull in blast probe

By Our Special Correspondent

TIRUPATI. Oct. 11. After hectic operations in police circles during the last ten days in the wake of a daring attack on the Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu's convoy on the Tirumala ghat road, there is a marked lull.

Meanwhile, a police official who did not deny the seizure of the abandoned car yesterday at Ramanuja Circle, however asserted that the car was not connected with the attack.

The official with sufficient Telangana and PW background, said PW ultras neither would use cars nor would travel in groups for obvious reasons.

But they use motorcycles, he said and pointed out that as such there was possibility that the abandoned motorcycle which the police seized three days ago from a place near Tirupati (West) railway station could be their get-away vehicle

The retired DGP of UP, Prakash Singh, who was appointed the one-man commission to probe the incident, is expected to reach Tirupati on Sunday or Monday, while the new SP, Ramachandra Raju, is also not likely to take charge until Octobter 15.

Collector yet to be posted: Though the Government posted a new SP, it is yet to find a replacement for the Collector, G. Saiprasad, who was shifted in the aftermath of the blast for alleged complacency. There is however a heavy pressure on the Chief Minister to cancel his transfer orders.

The delay in naming a replacement to him is giving rise to speculations that the Government was having second thoughts on his transfer orders.

With the district going without a regular Collector and the SP, there is a vacuum at its top-most echelons.

Cracker components seized: The Tirupati police who have stepped up the vigil on the movement of unlicensed explosives, crackers and their components in the wake of the ghat road blast, today seized 12 bags which contained various components that go into the making of fireworks and crackers.

The seizure follows the detention of two persons by crime sleuths at the Thummalagunta bus stop on the outskirts of the town. The duo -- Ravi (24) and Putturu Ravi (38) -- who confessed to the police that they purchased them at Gudiyatham in neighbouring Tamil Nadu and were carrying the components only for the manufacture of fireworks and crackers for the ensuing Deepavali.

They were, however, arrested as they could not produce to the police any valid licence either for the purchase or for the manufacture of the crackers.

Among the components seized were sulphur, aluminium power-999, fuse wires, thread balls and so on.

The arrests were made by the Central Crime Station team led by its Inspector, Sambasivaiah under the direct supervision of the Additional SP, Tirupati, Chandrasekhar Reddy.