Gelatin sticks & detonators packed in Tomato crates coming from TN seized by Kerala Police

Kerala Police on Sunday arrested two people from Tamil Nadu after around 7,000 gelatin sticks and 7,500 detonators, which were illegally being transported to Kerala, were seized from a truck carrying tomatoes. Prabhu (38), who is also the owner of the truck, and Ravi (30) were arrested under various provisions of the Explosives Act.

"We suspect that the explosives were collected from Salem in Tamil Nadu and were on the way to Angamali when a special election squad and police jointly apprehended the load from a small pickup truck," an investigating officer told news agency PTI. The special squad and the police were conducting routine vehicle checks in view of the upcoming local body polls. Police said the explosive materials were found concealed inside the tomato crates.

Gelatin stick is made of Gelignite, also known as blasting gelatin or 'jelly' and is an explosive material consisting of collodion-cotton (a type of nitrocellulose or guncotton) dissolved in either nitroglycerine or nitroglycol and mixed with wood pulp and saltpetre (sodium nitrate or potassium nitrate). It is used for blasting rocks in quarries and other purposes.

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Explosives hidden in tomato cartons

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