Cracker-maker among two arrested for Erode blast

Preliminary enquiry revealed that Murugan, one of the deceased, and his friend Sugumaran had procured the banned crackers to sell them for Deepawali. 

Based on the confession by Sugumaran, police arrested Thangamuthu from Vadugapatty near Arichalur for manufacturing the high-intensity crackers.

“Manufacturing crackers was his traditional family business. He also had a license to manufacture crackers, which had expired in 2017. Thereafter, Thangamuthu didn’t renew it, but took orders and supplied crackers clandestinely,” police said.

Sugumaran and Murugan had reportedly approached Thangamuthu and placed bulk orders for the banned ‘kal vedi’. Further investigation is on to find if he had already supplied the banned crackers to other places for Deepawali and also the involvement of others in such illegal cracker-making business.

The blast on Wednesday claimed the lives of three persons, Senthurpandian (50), S Murugan (45) and Karthik Raja (21). The trio were unloading the crackers from a mini door van, when the blast occurred.

Karthik Raja, son of Sugumaran, was a final year mechanical engineering student at a private college while Murugan ran a grocery store and Senthurpandian worked as a driver of the mini door van.