india

Updated: Feb 23, 2020 23:37 IST

A seven-year-old boy died in a Kolkata hospital on Sunday, four days after he and his friends were injured in an explosion of crude bombs, they had mistaken for balls.

Two of his friends are still undergoing treatment in two different government hospitals in the city. One of them, aged 12, was shifted to SSKM hospital’s trauma care centre on Sunday morning.

“My son died on Sunday morning. He suffered from severe burns all over his body,” said the father of the deceased on Sunday.

He added, “Some Trinamool Congress (TMC) men stored the bombs at the house. We couldn’t say anything out of fear. We had asked the children not to go to that part of the house but they did not listen.”

Local TMC MLA Shyamal Mondal said the party and the administration would not spare anyone, irrespective of their political affiliation.

“Our party is standing by the families of the children and taking care of all their financial needs. The police and the administration are investigating the case with a free hand. If a criminal thinks of saving own skin by using TMC as a shelter, the person would be proven wrong,” Mondal said.

The incident happened at Ghutiari Sharif, about 40 kilometers south of Kolkata, in South 24-Parganas district on Tuesday evening.

The children were playing in the backyard of the house situated at the Railgate area in Ghutiari Sharif, when the accident happened. The police later recovered three bags full of crude bombs from the house.

Jibantala police station’s officer-in-charge Subhas Ghosh said the owner of the house where the bombs were found, Rajjak Sardar, had been arrested. Sardar had rented the house to the victim’s family. The police are looking out for those who stored the bombs at Sardar’s residence.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state unit president Dilip Ghosh said the incident once again revealed how no resident of the state was safe under the TMC rule.

“Bombs can go off anywhere, anytime, killing anyone. This would not change until the Mamata Banerjee government goes,” Ghosh said.