Another constable on duty at the checkpost was seriously injured and has been admitted to hospital at Ambajogai. One suspect has been arrested so far, Special Inspector General of the Nanded Range, H G Ghule told The Indian Express. He, however, said Tuesday's explosion was not linked to the series of unexploded bombs found in several parts of Marathwada and other parts of the State over the last few months.

The explosion, which was heard within a radius of 20 km, caused the bodies of 22-year-old Iswar and Constable Dhananjay Bhatlawande to land as far away as 100 metres from the checkpost. The incident has caused much concern in the area.

Ghule said the checkpost, set up only a fortnight ago following several highway robberies in the area, was adjacentto the fields of a farmer, Ramchandra Honrao. Ever since the police arrived in the village, Ramchandra's son, Iswar, a second year Bachelor of Science student, used to come down to the checkpost each night and study for his examinations while keeping vigil over the wheat crop in his fields.

One of the four constables who manned the checkpost on a rotation basis said that Iswar kept having arguments with one Basawraj Honrao residing at Ahmedpur tehsil, where Iswar went frequently to take his examinations. Basawraj, who also hails from Iswar's village, is an Industrial Training Institute-trained fitter and police feel he may possess the knowhow to make crude bombs. Police say that Iswar had told constables at the checkpost that Basawraj had threatened to kill him, though he had not revealed why. Ghule said preliminary investigations reveal that the detonator could have been planted by Basawraj, who is currently in the custody of the Latur police.

Police said experts who inspected the site of the explosionfound sufficient chemical residue to figure out how the bomb was made. They said the chemicals in this bomb were different from those used in the unexploded bombs detected by the Aurangabad police in the region, Ghule confirmed.

Recalling the sequence of events, the police said that at around 3.30 am on Tuesday, constable Gautam Shinde, who was in the checkpost at the time, heard some dogs nearby barking unusually loudly. He ventured out but found no one around. However, just as he turned back, the bomb went off.

Half an hour later, when he regained consciousness, all he saw around him were pieces of flesh from Bhatlawande and Iswar, who had died instantly.