BHUBANESWAR: In a tragic incident, a man was killed after the explosives he was carrying detonated accidentally near a medicine shop in Daspalla of Nayagarh district on Monday. Four others, who sustained critical injuries in the blast, have been shifted to Nayagarh district headquarters hospital and Capital Hospital here.
The deceased was identified Kanhu Charan Nayak of Poibadi in Daspalla. Sources said Nayak used to be hired by owners of illegally-operating stone quarries in Khurda and Nayagarh districts for blasting.
Daspalla police registered a case under Sections 286, 304 of the IPC and Section 5 of the Explosives Act against a quarry owner Suresh Rout who accompanied Nayak to the medicine shop. Rout has criminal antecedents, IIC Chakrapati Kanhar said.
While police said Nayak was in possession of a bag of gelatin sticks, the latter’s wife claimed that he had no explosives with him when he left for work in the morning.
Nayak was a professional explosive handler, the sources added.