MUMBAI: A small-time farmer who made explosives at home and hurled as many as 18 gelatin sticks at people, including police, approaching his house at Vikramgad in Palghar was arrested on Tuesday morning after an operation lasting over 12 hours.

Santosh Shende, 35, who is fighting a maintenance claim by his wife, seems mentally unstable, said the police. The police said he had mastered the art of making bombs, but ruled out terror links. They are trying to find out where he got the raw materials to make the explosives.

The Shendepada resident had hurled around 18 bombs since the beginning of the month but luckily no one was killed or seriously injured. On December 18, Shende had attacked with a chopper another villager, Narayan Bendga, who had stood surety for Shende when he got bail in a case of assaulting his wife. As Shende was not fulfilling the bail condition of weekly appearance at the local police station, Bendga had withdrawn his surety. The next day, the cops came to arrest him, and Shende greeted them by hurling gelatin sticks. Another case of assaulting cops and being in possession of explosives was filed against Shende.

After villagers also complained against him, cops from the anti-terrorism cell and the bomb disposal squad began planning to catch him. Shende had two dogs, which would alert him. “Our first task was to divert their attention,” said Mansing Patil of the anti-terror cell.

On Monday evening, as the cops laid a trap, Shende was alerted and they could not nab him. Early on Tuesday morning, four police teams tried to approach the house undetected, but Shende was ready with a gelatin stick. “We managed to hit the stick with a sharp object and the explosive fell off his hand and was defused,” said Patil, who sustained minor bruises.

He has been booked under the IPC for causing hurt with dangerous weapons, attacking cops and the explosives Act, and remanded to police custody.