Mumbai: A live bomb was found near Mumbai by a local farmer, Mahendra Shankar Patil on April 26. Patil is a farmer from Wada in Palghar district, around 83km from Mumbai. While tilling his field, he tripped over a bomb on Wednesday afternoon.
After tripping over a bomb in his field, he called the local police. The Police along with the tehsildar rushed to the spot. After reaching the spot the police discovered that it was a live bomb from the British Era. Patil lives in Devli village in Wada taluka.
The farmer told Hindustan Times, “I was tilling my land where I plan to grow paddy when suddenly I hit upon a hard object and heard a “twang” metallic sound. I got scared as it looked like a bomb. I called out to the other farmers who were working in the adjoining fields, and then I called the police,” Sudam Shinde, senior police inspector of Wada police and Wada tehsildar Dinesh Kurhade after realising that it was a live bomb, called the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad.
According to a report published in Hindustan Times, Vithal Gosavi, deputy tehsildar, Wada said, “It is a live bomb dating back to the British era.” He further added, “We informed the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad in Thane who came on April 25 evening, but they were not able to defuse it.” The authorities had also written a letter to the Indian Army in Mumbai to send their BDDS squad to defuse the bomb.
Gosavi even confirmed that it was likely to be a bomb from the World War 2 period as, at the time, the British had evacuated 13 villages in Wada, including Devli village, and converted the area into a temporary ammunition dump and army cantonment. The police have taken over the area and not allowing anybody to loiter near the bomb site.
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