Cow’s death: 3 men held for placing crude bomb

Coimbatore: Forest department officials on Thursday arrested three men for placing a crude bomb (avuttukkai) at Sengalpadugai near Kallar in Mettupalayam that killed a cow on August 17.

They were identified as M Gunasekaran, 22, of Dhasampalayam, V Srikanth, 22 and N Krishnan, 64, of Kendaiyur near Mettupalayam.

The trio, along with Krishnan’s son K Prakash, 30, had made several bombs by watching YouTube videos, said Mettupalayam forest range officer Selvaraj. “Gunasekaran, a Class X dropout, was working as a plumber. Srikanth is a wall painter and Prakash, a labourer. They wanted to kill wild boars for meat. They bought crackers used during temple festivals and extracted gunpowder from them to make avuttukkai. They tested a bomb at an agricultural field near the reserve forest. Later, they made three bombs and placed them near the agricultural fields at Sengalpadugai to hunt wild boars,” he said.

A cow owned by A R Mohammed Jaffar Ali of Mettupalayam suffered injuries after it bit a bomb. Forest range officials registered a case on August 15.

“After the cow died, Gunasekaran and Srikanth handed over the other two bombs to Krishnan, who hid them in his house. They have confessed to the crime,” said Selvaraj.

Prakash is absconding.