Man, son killed after crackers loaded on scooter explodes in Tamil Nadu
“The scooter was blown to pieces while both of them died on the spot,” a police officer in Tamil Nadu familiar with the matter said.
A man and his seven-year-old son were killed on Thursday when a bag of country-made firecrackers they were carrying on their scooter exploded near Chinna Kottakuppam, between Puducherry and Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram district, police said on Friday.
The incident took place at around 1.35 pm when V Kalainesan, 37, resident of Ariyankuppam town in Puducherry, was returning home from Koonimedu village in Tamil Nadu with his son, K Pradeesh.
CCTV footage of the explosion which surfaced on Friday showed the two-wheeler suddenly bursting into flames as it crossed a police barricade.
“Three people who were nearby were injured but are out of danger,” Villupuram superintendent of police N Shreenatha said, adding that the trio was taken to Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research in Puducherry for treatment.
According to police, Kalainesan had picked up two bags of country-made firecrackers from Puducherry on Wednesday and kept them at his mother-in-law’s house in Koonimedu. The father-son duo collected the crackers on Thursday and were on their way to Puducherry when the explosion occurred.
“The scooter was blown to pieces while both of them died on the spot,” a police officer familiar with the matter said.
The bodies were sent to Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences for post mortem, the officer added.
Deputy superintendent of Kottakuppam police station, B Arun, said a case under 304 (ii) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) of Indian Penal Code and 9B(1)(b) (possession/selling of any explosive) of The Explosives Act, 1884, has been filed against the deceased and his father-in-law, who is the owner of the house where the crackers were stored.
“The crackers are made in Puducherry. Though it is a licensed unit, these crackers are mostly banned and are far from the approved green crackers,” Arun said.
