The three engineers who were injured in a cylinder explosion at a laboratory in the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.) that killed their colleague Manoj Kumar on Wednesday are in critical condition. Athulya Uday Kumar, Kartik Shenoy and Naresh Kumar underwent multiple surgeries at the Ramaiah Memorial Hospital while family members and friends kept vigil outside the ICU where they are under observation.
On Wednesday around 2.20 p.m., a high-pressure hydrogen cylinder exploded in the Aerospace Department’s Laboratory for Hypersonic and Shock Wave Research. The four engineers from the Super Wave Technology Private Limited, a startup funded by two IISc. professors, were in the laboratory at the time of the blast.
Kishore Kumar, elder brother of Naresh Kumar, arrived last night along with his sister and parents from Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh. “Naresh joined Super Wave Technology Private Limited (SWTPL) a year-and-a-half ago. He has been working as a project assistant and radiation safety officer. He was happy working there. We don’t know how the incident happened and have not got any information from IISc. officials,” said Kishore.
Naresh is on ventilator support and his condition is said to be critical, but stable. He did his MTech from Amrita School of Engineering in Coimbatore, and later moved to Qatar.
His colleague Athulya sustained facial injuries. His mother, who asked not be named, said her son loved working at the lab. “His project involved working with dangerous gases, but he always told me how safety conscious IISc. is. We spoke to him after the surgery. He just said that he was working in the lab and the blast happened suddenly,” she said.
Athulya is a B.Tech graduate from Amrita College of Engineering, Bengaluru. According to the hospital, he is conscious and his condition is stable.
Doctors at Ramaiah Hospital said that the third engineer, Kartik, underwent a laproscopy. He is on a ventilator and his condition is critical.
“Karthik Shenoy is also a great musician and a singer. We were supposed to perform this Sunday. The incident has come as a shock to us,” said his friend Sangeetha. According to his friends, Karthik’s mother lives in Mangaluru. His father passed away a couple of years ago.
(With inputs from Vismaya Vinay & Ananya Anand)