Puducherry: Curiosity landed six minor boys on the wrong side of the law when they experimented with explosive devices on Sunday. The minors, all aged between 16 and 17 years, allegedly hurled two improvised explosive devices they had made, damaging a van parked on the roadside on Sunday night. Inspector Babuji said that the incident happened at the Santhi Nagar extension near Balaji theatre.
Among the six, there are two school students, a polytechnic student, a BA first-year student, and two dropouts, all hailing from Kandoctor Thottam. They were classmates in Class 10 in the same school. Four were taken into custody, while two escaped. Investigation revealed that the minors had tested two explosive devices prepared with pebbles and Deepavali firecrackers.
Also read: A minor student sent a bomb threat to a private school in Bengaluru
They learned to make the device by watching YouTube videos. All the six had gathered on the road on Sunday night and hurled the explosives. The first one burst without much impact, but the second exploded with a bigger impact. On hearing the explosion, people came out and found the windscreen of a school van broken. The police suspected that the blast was an improvised explosive device as there was nothing, but pebbles and firecrackers at the site.
Bomb experts and a sniffer dog were brought to the scene while police scoured through the CCTV footage, which revealed six boys running away within minutes of the blast from the scene. None of the six has any criminal background and they are sons of autorickshaw drivers, except one, said Inspector Babuji. The arrested will be produced before the Juvenile Justice Board, he added.