A suspected blast at an under-construction building in Pulikeshi Nagar, in Bengaluru's Fraser Town area, injured two men on Tuesday afternoon — a worker and the building's security guard — and police are now probing every angle, including whether an improvised explosive device (IED) was involved.
The building's structure was complete and interior work was under way in a house where no one was living, Bengaluru City Police Commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh told reporters on Wednesday. According to the account one of the injured men gave police, he pressed a button on a battery-operated object he described as a battery torch — and it went off in his hands. Other media reports say the two men had found a suspicious bag by the road and carried it up to the fourth floor, where it exploded when opened, costing one of them a finger; the Commissioner said the men's statements so far have been contradictory and are still being verified. Police only learned of the incident on Tuesday evening, through a medico-legal report from the hospital where the men were taken.
Both men were treated at Bowring Hospital. One has since been discharged, while the other remains admitted. Karnataka Home Minister Priyank Kharge described the injuries as minor, saying one person had apparently suffered burns, though reports from the scene said one man lost a finger in the blast.
The response was immediate and heavy. The Anti-Terrorism Cell, the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad and the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) team all swept the site on Tuesday night, joined by senior officers — the Commissioner himself visited the spot. The materials recovered have gone to the FSL for a forensic audit, and police have registered a suo motu case, opening the investigation on their own without waiting for a formal complaint.
On the question everyone is asking — was it an IED? — the Commissioner was blunt: "We cannot say that right now. We cannot confirm it at this stage." Investigators say a chemical reaction or another cause has not been ruled out either, and the forensic findings will be used to reconstruct what materials were in the object and whether it was a blast at all in the technical sense. "As of now, I would like to assure everyone that there is nothing to panic about," Singh said.
Kharge struck the same note, urging the public to ignore rumours until the laboratory speaks: "It is still being investigated. All the materials have gone for a forensic audit. Until then, we will not pay attention to any rumours. Whether it was a chemical reaction, whether there was an improvised explosive device (IED), or whatever it may be, we are investigating. Let the forensic report come." The minister said the picture was expected to clear once the FSL report arrived.
Neither of the injured men is from Bengaluru — they belong to two different states — and police are checking their backgrounds with police in their home states while they question them and verify details with the building's owner and the families already living in the completed flats. No arrests have been announced. For now, the two injured men are the only witnesses to what happened inside that house — and until the forensic report lands, what went off in Pulikeshi Nagar, and why, remains an open question.
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