The death toll in the firecracker accident at Attibele on the outskirts of Bengaluru has reached 14, up from 13 on Saturday night. The accident occurred at Balaji Cracker Shop, a shop-cum-godown, on Saturday due to an explosion while crackers were being unloaded from a vehicle. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who along with other Ministers and senior officials visited the spot, announced a probe by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) into the accident.
The police have identified 11 bodies — Prakash, 20, a resident of Neepathurai village; Vettappan, 25, Aathikesavan, 23, Vijayaraghavan, 20, Ilambaruthi, 19, Akash, 23, Giri, 22, and Sachin, 22, all residents of Ammapettai village; both in Harur taluk of Dharmapuri district, and Prabhakaran, 17, Vasantharaj, 23, and Appas, 23, who hailed from Kallakurichi district of Tamil Nadu.
Sources in the police said that since the bodies were heavily charred, it was a Herculean task to identify them. Meanwhile, there are three unidentified bodies kept at Oxford Medical College Hospital, Attibele. Teams from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Madiwala, are expected to carry out DNA tests on these bodies to match with samples from their relatives, to identify them.
A total of seven persons have been injured in the accident. Three of the injured, Naveen Reddy — son of the owner of the cracker shop Ramaswamy Reddy, both of whom have been arrested — Rajesh and Venkatesh, are being treated at St. John’s Medical College Hospital. They suffered severe burns and internal injuries due to inhalation of smoke. The next 72 hours are critical, sources said. Four others — Sanjay, Chandru, Rajesh, and Paul Kabir — are being treated at Oxford Medical College Hospital.
Three arrested
The Attibele police have arrested three persons, including the owner of the building Anil Reddy. They have been booked under sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 285 and 286 (negligent conduct with respect to explosive substance), 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) of Indian Penal Code, apart from under various sections of The Explosive Substances Act, 1908.
FSL teams camping at the accident site and Fire and Emergency Services personnel who put out the blaze on Saturday said the shop also acted as a godown for firecrackers illegally. There were large quantities of crackers, beyond permissible limits, stored in the shop without any safety guidelines, which led to the fire accident.
K.A. Dayanand, Deputy Commissioner, Bengaluru (Urban), said they had permitted the shop to sell and not to store firecrackers. “The owner has violated the licence conditions and stored more than 1,000 kg of firecrackers. The licencing authority has not permitted anyone to store crackers,” he said.
