Mumbai: On Sunday, Ram Gopal Varma had accompanied him to the ravaged Taj Mahal hotel. On Wednesday, RDX was waiting for Vilasrao Deshmukh at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, thanks to the heightened security measures!
Exactly a week after the 26/11 terror strikes, and barely minutes after Deshmukh, who stepped down as chief minister, left the CST at 6.15 pm on Wednesday, an explosive-laden bag was found at the spot.
All the cops could say was that the bag, weighing nearly 8 kg, probably contained RDX. According to them, it must have been left by the two terrorists, who unleashed death at CST Wednesday last week, killing 58 people.
Deshmukh was at CST on Wednesday, from 5.30 pm to almost 6 pm, inspecting the tell-tale signs of horror in the heritage building.
It is shocking but true that the explosive-laden black-and-white backpack was found in the Government Railway Police storeroom. When the mayhem began on 26/11, thousands of scared passengers fled the CST, dropping whatever they had in their hands. The belongings of the dead too were strewn on the platforms. All the bags were stored in the GRP storeroom. It took the cops eight long days to fish out the deadly baggage from the heaps of unclaimed bags and goods.
On Monday, the police had seized two more bags stuffed with explosives outside the Taj Mahal hotel.
It was inspector Pandharinath Yeram who first got suspicious about the bag in the GRP storeroom on seeing its powdery content. A bomb disposal unit and the railway police dog squad were rushed in, and it was confirmed that the bag was indeed laden with explosives. Whether or not RDX the cops couldn't say for sure.
The GRP storeroom is located on the first floor next, right next to the reservation counter. Throughout the past week, another disaster was waiting to happen at CST.
