Judicial probe sought into Doranahalli fire accident in which 15 died, 10 were injured in February last year

Yadgir

Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha and Raitha Sene staged a protest outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Yadgir on Tuesday and strongly demanded that a judicial probe be conducted into the Doranahalli fire accident of 2022.

In February last year, 15 people were killed and 10 were injured when a fire broke out after a gas cylinder burst in Doranahalli village in Shahapur taluk of Yadgir district.

The Raitha Sangha said that Shahapur Police registered the case against the gas company and submitted a charge-sheet before a local court without taking the facts of the incident into account, only with an intention to protect the gas company.

The Raitha Sangha said that the police have in the charge-sheet made the complainant Saheb Gowda solely responsible for keeping the gas cylinder near the cooking area when his [complainant] family function was going on and absolved the gas company of all responsibilities. This was to help the gas company not to release compensation to the families of the dead and the injured, the Raitha Sangha said.

The organisation said that the police have joined hands with the gas company and shifted responsibilities on the shoulders of the complainant who, according to the organisation, is innocent.

The Raitha Sangha further reiterated that to bring the truth out and punish the real culprits, there is a need to institute a judicial probe into the whole incident.

State vice-president of the organisation Lakshmikanth Patil and others were present.