SHIVAMOGGA: Police have arrested four more people in connection with the Hunasodu blast, including the explosives supplier from Andhra Pradesh and his son, said Shivamogga SP K M Shantharaju.
Revealing this to reporters, Shantharaju said, “The explosives supplier P Sriramulu (68) of Anantapur and his son P Manjunatha Sai (36) were arrested in Mumbai on Friday.
Two others — land crusher owner Shankaragowda Kulkarni (76) and his son Avinash Kulkarni (43) — were also arrested.” The SP said six teams were constituted to investigate the matter and a team lead by Inspector Deepak of Tunga Nagar police station and CPI Marulasiddappa of Sorab police station went to Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh.
The team found that Sriramulu had permission to stock explosives at Rayadurga in Andhra Pradesh, but the explosives sent to Shivamogga were transported in an unpermitted vehicle. A case was filed in this regard at Gummataghatta police station for illegal stock of explosives and the same explosives were recovered by the concerned police.
Another team led by Inspector Abhayprakash Somnal and CPI Sanjiv Kumar went to Anantapur, Rayadurga and later to Hyderabad after getting confirmation about the presence of Sriramulu and Manjunath there.
Answering a question, SP said it has become very difficult to trace the body that was blown into pieces. However, the DNA of 52 persons were taken and samples have been sent to FSL, Bengaluru. He said, as it was difficult to identify the body, all the 10 pieces of the body were cremated separately. He said the whereabouts of other 3-4 persons missing since the day of the blast are yet to be ascertained.