69 detonators found in the restaurant godown

Jhabua, Sept 14: Further probe into the Jhabua explosion revealed that 69 detonators were stashed away in the godown of the restaurant where the deadly explosion happened on Saturday, killing 90 people. The godown belonged to the brother of the accused who is on the run.

Rajendra Kasawa, who is on the run, had stocked close to 100 gelatine sticks for the mining business at the shop, which is adjacent to the restaurant. Although he had the license to use them for his mining business, he had stored them illegally. The gelatines were triggered and went off in the Petlawad town in Jhabua district.

After the explosion, the accused and his family are reported to have fled from the residence. The police had sealed the house and godown of Kaswa, but found the detonators from the godown of his brother Narendra on Sunday evening.

Assistant sub-inspector Virendra Singh Base said,"We recovered 69 detonators which were kept in a packet from the godown at back of a garage." Meanwhile Kasawa had been booked for criminal negligence and culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

The state government announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh on any information on his whereabouts. Angry locals, who had blocked chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's road, said that they had complained about Kasawa a year ago, but no one did anything.

The explosion happened at around 9 am and most of those killed had come there for breakfast.