BENGALURU: A jittery city received another scare on Friday when a schoolboy set off a carelessly discarded detonator in a classroom, leaving three of his classmates injured.
The Class IV boy Ganesh had found three detonators in a garbage heap under a tree near his school. He picked them up and on returning to his classroom, inserted a wire into a socket, switched it on and ran from the place to see what would happen. In a few seconds, the detonator exploded and injured three children who were playing nearby, police officers said.
The incident took place at the Sathguru Sai Baba School in Roopena Agrahara around 1 pm. Because it was the lunch break, there were no teachers in the classroom. In the light of the recent Church Street blast, a bomb disposal squad rushed to the school and sanitised the area.
The three injured children, identified as Surya (Roopena Agrahara), Shivananda (Bommanahalli) and Kiran (Virat Nagar), were shifted to a nearby hospital and from there to St John’s Hospital, where they are responding well to treatment.
According to DCP (South East) Rohini Katoch, a search in the area revealed more detonators carelessly discarded near a construction site. Police quickly cordoned off the area since they were not sure whether the detonators were live or not.
The detonators were being used near a massive rock in Roopena Agrahara, around which the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) was building a sewage and storm water drain.
BWSSB had given out a contract for the drainage system after which the job was sub-contracted. According to Additional Commissioner of Police Alok Kumar, the contract had in fact made it clear that no detonators should be used, considering the proximity of homes and others structures to the rock.
“We have registered a case of negligence against unnamed persons and have detained a few people. We are trying to ascertain how and who put the detonators there and we will take action,” Katoch said.