Prayagraj: Kaushambi police on Friday arrested Shakeel, brother of the prime accused already in custody, from the Pipri area in connection with the firecracker unit explosion that recently killed 14 people. A joint police-administration team also demolished Shakeel’s two-storey house-cum-godown at Mahmoodpur in Manauri amid tight security.With the arrest of Shakeel, cops claimed to have arrested all six persons named in the FIR. They were booked under Sections 105 and 288 of BNS and Sections 4,5 and 9B of Explosives Act.IG (Prayagraj Range) Ajay Kumar Mishra had on Thursday night increased the cash reward from Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000 on Shakeel, who had been evading police action since the blast.Following Shakeel’s arrest, the joint team of police and administration, after carrying out investigations and compiling the required documentation, took up the demolition of his house at Mahmoodpur. The team demolished the two-storey house-cum-godown and seized a generator and lights. The joint team has bullzoed at least eight properties of the accused and their relativs so far.On Thursday, acting on a tip-off about the movement of accused Adil, who carried a reward of Rs 25,000, police cornered him near Canal Road and ordered him to surrender. Adil allegedly opened fire at the police team and sustained bullet wounds in both legs in the retaliatory firing. Police seized a country-made pistol from his possession.His mother and another absconding accused, Kahkasha, who carried a Rs 25,000 bounty, were arrested in a separate raid in Kaushambi’s Pipri area on Thursday evening.Adil’s father and the prime accused, Naushad Ali, who operated the illegal factory from his three-storey house in the Manauri area of Prayagraj along the Kaushambi border, was arrested following an encounter with police on Tuesday.Three houses in the factory’s vicinity were razed in the explosion and several others were damaged. A railway staffer, his wife and two sons were killed in the blast. Authorities demolished the remains of Naushad’s illegally constructed house on Monday.According to police, the accused in the August 31 Kaushambi firecracker blast had illegally stockpiled around 20 quintals of explosive chemicals sourced from Prayagraj and Pratapgarh a few days before the explosion.So far, nine policemen have been suspended for allegedly overlooking the illegal manufacture and storage of firecrackers at Naushad’s house.
