SHIVAMOGGA: Police on Monday formed six teams to investigate the Hunasodu blast that occured last Thursday. They also arrested the owner of the crushing unit and three others, and registered a suo motu case against the accused under IPC, the Explosives Act, and Explosive Substances Act.
Those arrested so far are, B V Sudhakar (57), of Ravindra Nagar, had taken the land on lease and ran the crushing unit; Narasimha (39), of Vinobanagar, was supervisor at the crushing unit; Mumtaz Ahmed (50), of Chalukya Nagar, was manager of the unit; Rasheed, of Jambaraghatta in Bhadravathi, worked at the unit. Land owner Avinash Kulkarni, is yet to be arrested.
IGP Eastern Range S Ravi said the explosives were brought from Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh. “We will investigate how they managed to cross the checkposts. We suspect the blast happened while the explosives were being distributed and gelatin sticks may have detonated. Live sticks were found at the blast site. We will continue to search for more explosives in a 2sqkm area,” he said.
Praveen acted as agent
The IGP said Praveen acted as an agent in the distribution of explosives to crushing units and quarries. “He had connections with suppliers. Praveen and Manjunath died in the blast with three others from Andhra Pradesh. The body of one person is yet to be identified,” he said.
It is suspected that two vehicles exploded in the blast, and police hope to trace the make.