Gelatin blast: Three victims visited kin’s house before blast

HIRENAGAVELI (CHIKBALLAPUR): Three of the six victims who died in the gelatin blast at Hirenagaveli village in Chikkaballapur taluk had just finished dinner on Monday night when they got a call around 9 pm to rush to shift the gelatin sticks, which led to the explosion. Abhilesh had gone along with Gangadhara and Murali Krishna for dinner to his aunt Alumelamma’s house at Gudibande, where the house warming ceremony was held last week.

“They came around 8 pm and had dinner. They had decided to stay overnight at our new house. But around 9 pm they got a call, and all of them left immediately on a two-wheeler. Before leaving, they told me that they come for a quarry work nearby and had to go,” Alumelamma told The New Indian Express. On Tuesday morning, Alumelamma got a phone call saying that six people had died in the blast, including the three who had visited her just the previous night.

Another relative said that Abhilesh got married over a year ago and the couple has a one-and-a-half-year-old boy. Lakshmi, the wife of another deceased Ramu (25), said that they got married five years ago, and they have a two-year-old son. Ramu was working as a machine operator at the quarry, she added.