Ahead of the Deepavali festival, the Bengaluru police have begun a special drive to crack down on illegally stored firecrackers. Sleuths from the Central Crime Branch (CCB) raided three illegal cracker godowns in the city and recovered ₹40 lakh worth crackers stored illegally. This follows the firecracker accident in a shop-cum-godown in Attibele that killed 14 people in October.
These godowns were in the midst of densely populated areas, and they neither had any permits nor were the crackers stored in any scientific way, the police said. Moreover, the firecrackers recovered were not green crackers, the only kind of crackers allowed to be sold.
Acting on a tip-off that large quantities of crackers were unscientifically stored without any permit, sleuths raided a godown in a commercial complex in New Thippasandra and recovered ₹25 lakh worth crackers. Jeevan Bima Nagar Police have registered a case.
In another case, CCB sleuths raided two godowns in densely populated areas in Jnanabharathi and recovered ₹15 lakh worth crackers unscientifically stored without any permit. A person has been detained in connection with the case.