SHIVAMOGGA: Police arrested 10 people in connection with the Hunasodu blast, in which a huge cache of explosives had detonated, killing six labourers on January 21. As the investigation progressed, the police arrested six others.The explosive supplier P Sriramulu (68) of Anantapura in Andhra Pradesh and his son P Manjunatha Sai (36) were arrested from Mumbai recently. Along with them, the crusher landowner Shankaragowda Kulkarni (76) and his son Avinash Kulkarni (43) were arrested too. Later, Sriramulu’s other son Prudhvinath was also arrested.
Superintendent of Police K M Shantharaju told The New Indian Express that the police arrested one more person, identified as Vijayakumar, who was working with Sriramulu. The police formed six teams to probe the incident. police have launched a manhunt to arrest other accused.
On January 21, a huge cache of explosives loaded in a lorry exploded at the stone crusher unit at Hunasodu village. Six labourers, including three from Rayadurg in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh, and two labourers from Antaragange in Bhadravathi taluk died in the blast. Prima facie, it was found that the explosives were stored illegally without any license. As per the initial information, the explosives were brought from Andhra Pradesh but it is unclear how the huge cache of explosives entered Karnataka.