Jhabua blast accused Rajendra Kasawa arrested: Report

After detaining his family members, police have reportedly arrested the prime accused of an explosion in Petlawad town in Madhya Pradesh's Jhabua district. According to a report in a leading daily, accused Rajendra Kaswa has been arrested from Maharashtra. The report also said that the police are neither accepting nor denying Kaswa's arrest.

Kasawa has been booked for keeping gelatin sticks in his house, which resulted in the explosion. All residences and godowns of Kasawa have been sealed.

At least 89 people were killed and nearly 100 injured after a massive blast that took place in the building of Rajendra Kasawa, who has a licence to use explosive material for digging wells in rocky areas. Kasawa had stored the explosive material, including gelatin sticks, in huge quantity in the residential building, which also houses two shops, and is situated close to the busy Sethia Restaurant in new bus stand area, a police official said.

A day ago, police had taken into custody Narendra and Phoolchand, two brothers of Kasawa and handed them over to Jhabua Police. They also seized 69 detonators, two batteries and a large number of gelatin sticks from the residence of Narendra in Petlawad. The explosive materials were allegedly illegally stocked by him for carrying out mining activities.

Meanwhile, Kasawa's wife, son and daughter were released on Tuesday by the police after being interrogated.