Four years on, Shivamogga quarry blast case probe is back to square one Premium

A lorry carrying explosives and those in and around it blew up to smithereens at a stone-crushing unit near Hunasodu on the outskirts of Shivamogga on January 21, 2021. Five people were identified as dead and three were ‘missing’. Four years on, there is no closure for either the affected families or the case. The High Court of Karnataka has quashed the chargesheet on the ground that the authority entrusted to investigate the case had no jurisdiction over it. Sathish G.T. revisits the grieving families and the case.

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.

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.