The National Investigation Agency will probe how huge amounts of explosives reached parts of Mohammad Bazar in Birbhum and Beldanga in Murshidabad.

The central agency had recently filed a chargesheet in connection with the recovery of explosives at Jagaddal in North 24-Parganas. The NIA decided to take up the probe after filing FIRs in two separate cases involving explosives in Birbhum and Murshidabad.

The FIRs were submitted to Bankshall court. In July, around 81,000 detonators had been seized from a pick-up van in Birbhum’s Mohammad Bazar following a joint raid by the state’s Special Task Force and the district police.

The explosives were stored in several bags on a mini-truck and the police had arrested one person. Primarily, it appeared that the explosives were meant for stone quarries at Rampurhat in Birbhum. In January, one person had died and five suffered injuries when some crude bombs had gone off at Rameswarpur-Dakshinpara village in Murshidabad’s Beldanga. In April, three months later, the foundation of a house in Beldanga was damaged following an explosion. Senior NIA officers said they would visit the two districts shortly.

“We will submit a chargesheet in the court,” said a senior NIA officer refusing to go into the details.

In the aftermath of the Bogtui killings in Birbhum, the police had launched combing operations across districts to flush out explosive materials and bombs following instructions from chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Senior NIA officers said they were concerned with the amount of explosive materials and crude bombs that were being seized from different parts of the state. "There are specific laws for obtaining license to manufacture and store explosive materials. It doesn't appear that in the cases, the explosives were legally being used," the officer said.