Government of Kerala had ordered a judicial inquiry by Justice Krishnan Nair, a retired Judge of High Court of Kerala.
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The tragedy took place a few hours after the fireworks display started near the Puttingal Devi Temple in the coastal town of Paravur in Kollam district, about 70 kilometers from the state capital, Thiruvananthapuram.
The accident occurred around 3.30am on Sunday at the 100-yearold temple complex during an unauthorised display of fireworks, when a spark fell into the storehouse containing crackers, triggering a blast.
Meanwhile, a case has been registered against six persons including including members of temple managing committee and associates of firework contractors under section 307 (attempt to murder), and 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) of IPC and under section 4 of Explosives Substances Act.
The temple, which which was celebrating the Hindu new year over Saturday night into Sunday, has a long history of using fireworks in celebrations, sometimes setting off ones that appear low to the ground.
“There are rules against storing such huge quantities of explosives but unfortunately there seems to be a laxity in enforcing the rules”, he said. More than 260 people were injured.
Every year, the temple holds a competitive fireworks display, with different groups putting on successive light shows for thousands of devotees gathered for the last day of a seven-day festival honoring the goddess Bhadrakali, a southern Indian incarnation of the Hindu goddess Kali.
The Kollam District Collector A Shainamol said “no permission for any kind of fireworks” was granted after the temple came to the administration seeking consent for conducting a “completion firework”.
By around 7 a.m., firefighters had brought the blaze under control, officials said.
Firefighters and police battled to douse the fire and rescue those trapped at the complex, but some victims were charred beyond recognition and more than 30 of the 106 dead have yet to be identified. “Some of the organizers threatened my family with harm if I continued with my campaign”, she told reporters.
Another housewife was seething in anger, seeing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi accompanied by their massive security cover visiting the site of devastation.
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Large crowds combined with lax safety standards make mass deaths at religious celebrations and other gatherings a common occurrence in India. On Monday, the investigating team seized the explosives from a storeroom near another temple in the vicinity of Puttingal Devi temple.
