Four years on, Shivamogga quarry blast case probe is back to square one
Chikka Bore Gowda, a resident of Kengal Hanumanthaiya Nagar near Bhadravati in Shivamogga district of Karnataka, calls his son C. Devendra’s mobile phone every now and then only to hear a pre-recorded message saying that the call could not be connected. Gowda last saw his son four years ago.
Sixty-year-old Gowda, a farmer, lost his ailing wife, Susheela, eight years back. He lived with his son and his family. The blast at a stone-crushing unit at Hunasodu near Shivamogga on January 21, 2021, left them devastated. The police who investigated the case concluded that six people died in the incident, though they identified five among the victims initially. Three people, including Devendra who was at the site that fateful night, were declared “missing”.
“If we knew for certain that he died in that blast, we would have reconciled to the loss over time. But now, we are dying every day thinking of him. We don’t know what happened to him for certain,” says a tearful Gowda. Though the police later said the DNA test proved the sixth body to be that of Devendra’s, Gowda refuses to believe it and continues to harbour suspicion.
Devendra alias Shashi had a daughter and his wife, Shobha, was pregnant with the second child when he went “missing” following the blast. “After he did II PU [pre-university course], I insisted that he stay at home looking after cows and agriculture in the village instead of going out for any job. After I lost my wife, I wanted my son to remain with me,” says Gowda. The father got an autorickshaw for Devendra, who occasionally worked for Praveen, who used to procure explosives for stone-crushing units. According to Gowda, Devendra would collect money from those running thestone-crushing units and hand it over to Praveen. He had maintained a notebook of payments.
The blast that shook all
It was around 10.20 p.m. on January 21, 2021, that a lorry carrying explosives, including gelatin sticks and detonators, blew up at the Hunasodu stone quarry. The cause of the accident is not clear as all those at the spot died or went missing. It is said that the lorry came in contact with a transformer, leading to a spark. There were no safety measures in place. The blast was so intense that residents of Shivamogga city — about 4 km away — and several villages in Bhadravati taluk and also those in the neighbouring Davangere and Chikkamagaluru districts heard the sound and thought it was an earthquake.
The impact of the blast was so huge that many houses in the villages of Hunasodu and Kalluganguru suffered damage. Many borewells around the quarry area were rendered defunct and hundreds of electronic gadgets went out of order. People living near Hunasodu — who reached the spot after seeing flames and thick waves of dust engulfing the locality — found parts of both the lorry and bodies of people scattered across a large area. The police eventually cordoned off the area and called in experts to understand what actually had happened.
The incident caught the nation’s attention and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took to social media to express shock and offer condolences.
How the case progressed
A file photo of authorities retrieving the remains of victims at the blast site at Hunasodu in Shivamogga taluk.
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The next day, on January 22, 2021, the Shivamogga Rural police registered a case under the Explosives Act, the Explosive Substances Act, and sections of the Indian Penal Code that dealt with negligence in handling explosives and culpable homicide, not amounting to murder. The police concluded that six people died in the incident, and they identified five among them. They were Mopuri Pavan, 29; Chamma Javeed, 28; Chelimanu Raju, 24; Manjunath, 35, and Praveen, 36. Three others — Devendra, Punith, and Nagaraj — were declared “missing”.
Praveen, according to the police, often supplied explosives to stone crushers. He had contacts in Andhra Pradesh from where he procured the explosives. Devendra, Manjunath of Antaragange, Punith of Basavanagudi and R. Nagarajof Gowrapura, — all residents of neighbouring villages in Bhadravati taluk — worked as Praveen’s drivers and helpers whenever needed. On that fateful day, Praveen took all of them to deliver the goods. While Praveen and Manjunath were found dead, the remaining three were declared “missing”.
“If we knew for certain that he died in that blast, we would have reconciled to the loss over time. But now, we are dying every day thinking of him. We don’t know what happened to him for certain.”Chikka Bore Gowda,father of C. Devendra
Vinay Kumar, son of Nagaraj, a fisherman, says he and his father were fishing at Gowrapura tank on the day when his father got a call from Praveen. “He gave me ₹20 and left with Praveen. That was the last I saw him,” says Vinay Kumar, 24. Nagaraj’s wife, Shanthamma, and their two sons — Vishwanath and Vinay Kumar — are all daily wage workers.
Rajamma, 55, of Basavanagudi, lost her son Punith that day. She lost her husband 30 years ago. “My two daughters are married. My only son is now missing. I have been working in agricultural fields in my village,” she says. Punith had purchased a luggage carrier. She had kept the vehicle till recently hoping that her son would return one day and use it. She says mournfully that she sold the vehicle for a few thousand rupees to meet her daily expenses.
The experts who examined the parts of human bodies at the blast site concluded that they belonged to six people. With the help of identity cards, clothes, and other identification marks, they identified five people. The identity of the sixth person remained elusive. Three others, Punith, Nagaraj, and Devendra, were deemed “missing” from the spot at that point.
Later, through the court’s approval, the police collected blood samples of family members of those who were “missing”. The samples were sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory in Bengaluru and the Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology at the Shivamogga Institute of Medical Sciences in Shivamogga. The experts noted that the sample of an unidentified body matched with the sample collected from Pranathi D., daughter of Devendra.
Three persons — C. Devendra, R. Nagaraj, and Punith — were declared ‘missing’ after the Hunasodu blast that occurred on January 21, 2021.
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SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Gowda, however, says, “The police all of a sudden informed the media that there was a DNA match, leaving us in shock. But, when I sought the reports of the laboratory, they did not oblige. Without verifying the documents, how can I believe their statement.”
Gowda has doubts over the police version for various reasons. He says the supplementary chargesheet referred to the call details of the phone numbers his son possessed. “I am surprised at the mention of over 300 calls on my son’s phone on that day — January 21, 2021. I was with him for half of the day. He hardly received any calls when he was with me. However, the records furnished by the police show that he got calls without a break. It is impossible. I don’t believe the police claim that he died in the blast.”
Gowda and the family members of Nagaraj and Punith, who are also missing, have filed a writ petition in the Karnataka High Court seeking an inquiry into the case by the Central Bureau of Investigation. They believe the three did not die in the blast but could have become pawns in the hands of influential people, allegedly involved in the case.
Chargesheet quashed
While the three families have no closure at a personal level, the fate of the case and investigation is quite literally back to square one.
Though the Shivamogga Rural Police registered the case following the blast, soon after, the case was handed over to the Shivamogga Cyber Crime, Economic Offences and Narcotics (CEN) Police for investigation. The then IGP of Eastern Range S. Ravi ordered the transfer of the case to the CEN police. K.T. Gururaj, police inspector, conducted the investigation and filed the chargesheet in April 2021 and later a supplementary chargesheet.
The police listed Sreeramulu, Manjunath Sai, P. Pruthviraja Sai, K. Vijaya Kumara, Mopuri Pavan, Chamma Javeed, Chelimanu Raju, Praveen Kumar, Manjunatha, B.V. Sudhakar, S.T. Kulkarni, Avinash Kulkarni, Mumtaz Ahmad, Rashid, Narasimha, and Devendra as accused in the case. Among them, Pavan, Javeed, Raju, Praveen Kumar, Manjunath, and Devendra are dead.Sreeramulu is the lorry owner, and Manjunath Sai, Pruthviraja, and Vijaya Kumara from Andhra Pradesh were accused of supplying explosives through Praveen without obtaining mandatory licence. They were accused of endangering life by not following rules.
Sudhakar, a resident of Shivamogga, is the owner of BVS Stone Crusher, where the incident happened. S.T. Kulkarni and Avinash Kulkarni are the owners of the land, which they had given on rent for the crushing unit. Mumtaz Ahmad was the writer at the crusher unit, Rashid, a worker, and Narasimha was the supervisor.
The decision to transfer the probe to the CEN police, however, has eventually proved to be detrimental to the case, bringing the entire investigation back to square one.
The accused challenged the chargesheet in the High Court. The court, on September 20, 2023, quashed the proceedings citing that the CEN police had no jurisdiction in the first place to investigate the offences punishable under the provisions of the Explosives Substances Act. As a result, the proceedings of the case at the 3rd Additional District and Sessions Court in Shivamogga were also stopped. The court, on December 18, 2024, declared that the case was disposed of.
However, the High Court, in its order stated that the Shivamogga Rural police had the liberty to conduct the investigation and submit the final report. When The Hindu contacted Shivamogga Superintendent of Police G.K. Mithun Kumar, he said the case would be re-investigated and a fresh chargesheet filed. Regarding the “missing” persons case, he said the probe is continuing.
No relief to affected residents
Eshwar Naik, a farmer from Kalluganguru whose house is located close to the blast site, suffered huge losses following the incident.
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Sathish G.T.
Meanwhile, the residents of Hunasodu, Kalluganguru, Hanumanthapura, and neighbouring villages, whose houses were damaged during the blast, have repeatedly demanded relief from the government. They have staged protests outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office multiple times. Their demand, however, has remained unfulfilled.
Eshwar Naik, a farmer at Kalluganguru whose house is located close to the blast site, suffered huge losses following the incident. “We were the worst hit in the incident. The roof sheets, windowpanes, irrigation pumpset, and electronic gadgets were damaged. We spent more than ₹50,000 for repairs. However, the government did not pay any relief,” he says.
Since the incident, there has been no activity at the stone-crushing site and it remains desolate, but that hardly brings any relief to families already devastated by the blast.
(Edited by Giridhar Narayan)
Published – January 24, 2025 07:05 am IST