Kerala temple fire: 1 arrested as crime branch looks for main accused

New Delhi, April 15: The Crime Branch probing the Puttingal temple tragedy will have to submit its status report to the Kerala High Court in May. The Crime Branch says it is hopeful of cracking the case and putting out all the details of the investigation by then.

The crime branch has made another arrest in the case. This time it is the brother of fireworks contractor Krishnan Kutty. The crime branch picked up for questioning Kochumani and are grilling him for details regarding the whereabouts of his brother.

It may be recalled that over 100 people died when fire broke out at the Puttingal temple in Kerala where there was a fireworks display or competition on. The police say that the display was held despite a ban.

A crime branch official said that the whereabouts of Kutty is still being ascertained. He has been missing ever since the day the incident took place. We are questioning his brother for details of his whereabouts. The police say that Kochumani was present at the temple on the day the accident occured.

The police want to know if the fireworks contractors had added banned chemicals to the firecrackers. They are also seeking to know who had requested them to prepare the firecrackers beyond the permissible limits.

The police suspect that the contractors were told to enhance the capabilities of the firecrackers by one group which was competing with another. At the temple there is a fireworks competition that is held every year. This year around the same had been banned.

OneIndia News