The watchman of a motorcycle showroom on the Khaja Banda Nawaz Darga Road in the heart of Kalaburagi was killed on the spot when leakage from an LPG cylinder inside a neighbouring tea stall led to a blast in the early hours of Thursday.
Police gave the name of the victim as Sheikh Jalal (55). According to eyewitness accounts of the tea stall owner Vinayak and the watchman of the Pragnya English Medium School Bharani, who were near the scene when the incident happened, the victim, Mr. Jalal had first noticed the smoke coming out of the locked tea stall and woke up Bharani and both of them had gone to the house of Vinayak and brought him to the tea stall to open it to identify the reason for the smoke.
Soon after the doors of the tea stall were opened a loud bang was heard and Jalal who had entered into the tea stall suffered the maximum impact of the blast. One of his legs had amputated due to the impact of the blast and he died on the spot. The others were in a state of shock and were admitted to the government hospital and have been kept under observation. A mechanic’s shop and another kirana shop, which were next to the tea stall, suffered extensive damage due to the blast. Senior police officials including Inspector General of Police Sunil Agarwal, Superintendent of Police Amit Singh and other officials inspected the spot soon after the incident.
