The State Crime Branch has launched an inquiry into the fireworks accident that claimed over 100 lives and caused debilitating injuries to more than 200 people at Puttingal temple in Paravoor in Kollam early on Sunday.
It has registered a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against the festival organisers. The agency has also booked them on suspicion of violating the Explosives Act, 2008. Additional Director General of Police S. Ananthakrishnan is heading the probe.
The initial inference of investigators was that those organising the firework display had taken no safety precautions to ensure that the debris from firecracker explosions would not fall on spectators or incendiary material storage sites.
The display zone was almost over the crowd and one of the shacks where the firecrackers were stored.
Bulk explosion
The authorities believe that flaming debris from a rocket had caused the premature and bulk explosion of firecrackers contained in scores of firing tubes at the site.
The accidental detonation had also caused vast damage to houses and vehicles within a 1.5-km radius of the blast centre.
Investigators said they suspected that the crackers were arranged for firing by people with little proficiency in pyrotechnic display.
It was possible that some setting error had caused the display rocket to veer off its path, causing its flaming debris to fall on the storage shed.
Violation of order
The agency was also focused on finding out how the temple management could brazenly violate the District Magistrate’s order not to hold competitive fireworks and why the local police did not implement her decision.
The accident, which yanked public attention away from the election campaign and simmering political controversies, also prompted the police to inspect firecracker units and the premises of licensed explosive dealers.
Officials who raided the warehouse of the licensee who conducted the fireworks display in Kollam said they found nearly 135 kg of unaccounted low grade gunpowder. The licensee had the permit to stock only 15 kg of the substance. The Crime Branch was likely to take over the case.
According to the police, there are at least 2,000 licensees authorised to stock, sell and use explosives. They include large numbers of those making fireworks for religious bodies and festivals as well as those involved in quarrying and people contracted by temples to explode crackers as part of ritual.
The police are set to review the licences and cancel those they find ineligible. Moreover, officials said it was difficult to monitor the activities of so many licensees and, hence, diversion of explosives was difficult to detect.
CB registers case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against organisers
