BHUBANESWAR: SOME pieces of tattered clothes and an identity card were seized by police during inspection of the explosion site at Raj Bhavan Square Filling Centre premises on Friday. These will be sent to the forensics department.A dog squad was pressed into service for thorough investigation of the spot on the day.
Simanchal Parida of Ganjam district went missing from the spot after the fire accident, followed by an explosion. DNA of the seized body parts will be conducted to obtain further details. CCTV footages of the petrol pump were also examined. Experts from State Forensics Science Laboratory (SFSL) and Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organization (PESO) will be involved in further examination of the CCTV footages to ascertain whether one of the LPG tanks exploded due to technical glitch, said a police officer.
Meanwhile, PESO officials said investigation into the matter is continuing. They will question one of the injured persons after he recovers to collect more details about the accident.Harshvardhan Srivastava, who is the Odisha head of the agency which has been awarded the contract to carry out the testing work of the fuel station’s LPG unit, is under treatment at the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack and showed signs of improvement.
He had sustained 40 per cent burn injuries. Apart from Srivastava, around nine people were injured in the deadly explosion. Unconfirmed sources said police also seized some more body parts from the site and they are not ruling out fatalities at the spot during the accident.