The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Bengal police arrested two persons for their alleged role in the blast at Nimtita railway station on February 17 night, which had left minister of state for labour Jakir Hossain and 26 others seriously injured.

Abu Samad, 44, a part-time farmer, was arrested from his home in Suti. Sahidul Islam alias Chemical Sahidul, a Suti native residing in Jharkhand’s Sibganj, was picked up from his home in the early hours of Friday.

This is the first arrest made by the CID, which is probing the case, along with the Special Task Force (STF) and the Counter Insurgency Force (CIF).

Senior CID officers claimed that they had found evidence — circumstantial and CCTV grab seconds before the blast — to suggest that the two were present around the railway station in the Murshidabad district when the blast took place around 10pm. Jakir was about to board the Calcutta-bound Teesta-Torsa Express when the explosion occurred.

The officers said the arrested duo were actively engaged in cattle smuggling till a few months back.

The family members of both Sahidul and Abu said they had been falsely implicated and they were nowhere close to the railway station when the blast had taken place.

The CID had during its probe recovered around three kilos of gunpowder in a packed bag from Aurangabad, 3km from the blast site. Aurnagabad is in the Suti block. Anuj Sharma who is heading the three-agency probe had visited Nimtita and examined the blast site.

The investigators had concluded that the explosive material that was used for the blast was of high intensity to the extent that fingers had come off some of the victims.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had visited Jakir and other injured persons after they had been admitted to the trauma centre of the SSKM Medical College and Hospital in Calcutta. The BJP and other Opposition parties had sought an NIA probe into the explosion.

Sources in the police said Sahidul was being brought to Suti on a transit remand from Sibganj in Jharkhand. Abu was produced in the Lalbagh subdivisional court and remanded in 12 days of police custody.

“We will want to question both and find out their activities. There are some more persons involved in the case and we want to reach them after questioning the two,” said a senior CID officer.