The Thiruvananthapuram Rural police raided the suspected godowns of Adarsh, the contractor who supplied the firecrackers for the temple festival in Thripunithura, where a blast that ripped through a storage unit claimed one life and left several people injured on Monday.
The Pothencode police inspected two houses that purportedly functioned as unauthorised godowns for firecrackers in Madavoorpara near Kattaikonam.
Adarsh, who suffered grievous injuries in the blast, had accompanied the group that included the deceased Ulloor native Vishnu to Thripunithura to supply the firecrackers.
A large cache of explosives were seized from the houses. Chemicals including ammonium nitrate that are used as raw materials for manufacturing fire crackers were also confiscated. The police also chanced upon nearly 250 grams of ganja that was stored in packets in one of the houses.
According to official sources, several high-intensity firecrackers were found to be destroyed and hurled to a quarry pond adjacent to the houses. The police also received information that an unidentified group shifted some quantity of firecrackers from the godowns, shortly after the explosion had taken place in Thripunithura.
Both facilities have been functioning without a valid license. While the group earlier had a license that was issued in the name of Adarsh’s mother Ananthavally, they lacked the prerequisite documents since her death nearly six months ago, the police said.
