The Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh police jointly inspected the detonator magazines (storage points) in Rayadurg mandal of Anantapur district on Thursday following the death of six persons in a massive blast at Hunasodu on the outskirts of Shivamogga in Karnataka on January 21. Three of the six dead hailed from Rayadurg area.
The owner of the magazine at Jaggaluru in Davangere district, from where detonators were taken to Shivamogga, maintains the Aduguppa magazine in Gummagatta mandal, and the Anantapur police found some stock kept in five vehicles reportedly in an unsafe manner. They seized the material and shifted them to Kurugunta magazine near Anantapur city in the evening.
Rayadurg Rural Circle Inspector Raja said since the material was kept in an unsafe manner, cases were booked against the person and material seized in the presence of Deputy Director Explosives Ravi Kumar and the local Tahsildar Venkata Chalapathi. Shivamogga Rural Circle Inspector Deepak was also present.
The Karnataka police were also were trying to locate the origin of the detonators that caused the explosion in the quarry there. Anantapur Superintendent of Police B. Satya Yesu Babu, meanwhile, ordered a safety audit of the magazines, and the Aduguppa magazine was inspected on Thursday.
The police said the material had arrived at the magazine on Wednesday night. The police were waiting for explosive experts to arrive from Visakhapatnam to count and check if there was any excess or shortage in the quantity of explosive material permitted for storage and transportation.
