Cornering the government over alleged irregularities that led to the explosion at a stone quarry in Hunasodu near Shivamogga, leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah on Monday demanded a judicial enquiry by a sitting High Court judge, even as he called the incident a “murder”.
Raising the issue in the Assembly, Siddaramaiah said 1,350 kg of explosives detonated at the stone crushing unit compared with 250 kg explosives used in the Pulwama terror attack.
“All quarries against which there are complaints from the public should be stopped,” he said. Allowing the district administration to probe the case will not bring out the truth, as the deputy commissioner had not acted on complaints, including those by Forest department over illegal quarrying, he said.
Demanding that the authorities revise the sections invoked against the accused, he said that police had missed filing cases under Sections (3) and (4) of the Explosive Substances Act, which mandate life imprisonment for such crimes.
“Politicians and officials who were aware of illegal quarrying have abetted the crime,” he said, adding that action should be initiated against them too.
Even BJP MLC Ayanur Manjunath, Siddaramaiah said, had noted that local police authorities had seized 25 boxes of gelatin sticks a few days before the incident, but failed to initiate action against those involved.
“The laxity then was the cause of the tragic accident,” he said.
The issue was discussed in the Legislative Council, where leader of the Opposition S R Patil demanded a detailed investigation into the issue. The government has to identify those who are directly and indirectly involved.
“There are many cases of illegal mining where no FIRs are registered. The government has to take this issue very seriously. How did these explosives reach Karnataka from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh? It looks like even intelligence officials are hand in glove here,” he added.