“This particular site is regulated. But the blast had occurred a km away from the quarrying site. The SP had personally visited the site first on 7 February and booked a case for irregularities regarding usage of explosives. That time, some explosives were seized too. It was found that they are supposed to put the gelatin at a depth of 7 feet, but they were doing it at a much further depth. According to rules, there are specialised personnel who should be handling the explosives, but the quarry operators were doing it themselves without any expert guidance. So an FIR was registered and one person was arrested too,” Latha elaborated.
She added, “The FIR had also named the owners of the quarry as the accused. Four times, the police had inspected the place since then.”
As reported earlier, six persons died in an accidental explosion of gelatin sticks at around 12.15 am on Tuesday near the stone quarry unit situated in Hirenagavalli village of the district bordering Bengaluru. …