Kerala blasts: Man claims he used 50 small firecrackers, 8 litres of petrol

Dominic Martin, the lone accused in the Kalamassery blast case in Kerala, has told police that he had used 50 small firecrackers, known locally as gundu, eight litres of petrol and that he set fire to the firecrackers by operating the IED. In his statement to the police, Martin said he had placed the explosives inside plastic bags in the hall.

Martin said he had purchased the small firecrackers from firecracker shop at Tripunithura. During the interrogation, he told police that he spent Rs 3,000 to make the bomb and learned how to make the electric detonator from YouTube videos.

A member of Jehovah's Witnesses, Martin had surrendered before police in Kerala’s Thrissur district, taking responsibility for the multiple blasts at the Christian religious gathering of Jehovah's Witnesses at Kalamassery in Kochi on Sunday morning.

The National Security Guards (NSG) team has recovered the remains of the circuit that was used for the blast and the police have been able to recover some visuals from his phone to prove the charges.

Meanwhile, according to reports, Martin's mother-in-law was also among those at the convention. She survived the blast without any burns, said news reports.

Martin reportedly made the bomb on the terrace of his ancestral house at Aluva on Sunday. He placed the plastic bags containing the explosives inside the hall at Kalamassery around 7.00 am. Later, he recorded a video confessing to the crime and uploaded it on Facebook.

He rented a room at a lodge in Thrissur’s Koratty to record the video. The staff at the lodge said he took room around 10.45 am and left within 10 minutes. “He looked tense. After 10 minutes, he claimed he needed to check out as a relative had met with an accident,” said the staff.

Three people were killed and 51 injured in the multiple blasts that occurred at the convention centre, said MR Ajith Kumar, ADGP (law and order).

Among the injured, 18 have been admitted to the ICU. Hours after police and central agencies initiated a probe suspecting a terror attack, Martin surrendered before the Kodakara police taking responsibility for the attack. He claimed that he vowed to end the Jehovah's Witness group as its ideology was dangerous for the country.