Uttar Pradesh: 4 children killed in explosion at Bundelkhand Gaurav Mahotsav in Chitrakoot

Chitrakoot (Uttar Pradesh) [India]: Four children were killed and several others were injured, in an explosion at Bundelkhand Gaurav Mahotsav in Uttar Pradesh’s Chitrakoot, police said on Thursday.

According to the police, the blast occurred during the fireworks display at the festival.
“Four of our children died in this. DIG from Chitrakoot, District Officer Chitrakoot and SP, Additional SP, among other officials are on the spot, our forensic team, a team of Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) are also arriving,” Bhanu Bhaskar, Additional Director General (ADG), Prayagraj Zone told reporters at Chitrakoot.

The senior officer said that an FIR has been registered against three people in connection with the incident, and more people are likely to be named in the FIR, and that an investigation has begun into the incident.

“FIR has been filed now against about three people and more people will included in it. The investigation is going on,” Additional Director General of Police Bhaskar said.
“We have given the entire investigation to a new investigator, Harsh Pandey, CO, so that we can take it forward with the same seriousness as we were doing, also by coordinating with the teams that are coming in from New Delhi, from Lucknow as well as from Prayagraj and with the teams that are coming from Agra, we will conclude very soon,” he said.

“It would not be appropriate for me to make any comment regarding the investigation because all the facts are being examined. The postmortem of the children is not complete. More people are being interrogated and with the clues they have given so far, we are investigating,” the senior police official said.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered a high-level inquiry committee, led by an additional director general (ADG) rank officer, to investigate the incident. He also announced financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh for the families of the deceased and Rs 50,000 for the injured.

Additional Director General of Police Bhaskar said further said that the officials are meeting the family members of the deceased, whose identities have not been yet revealed, adding that the government have announced an ex-gratia to the kin of the deceased.

“Now we are in talks with everyone, our first task was to meet the family members, so till now we met two, we have met a family in Allahabad and also in Prayagraj and after this, we will meet the rest and take necessary action,” he said.

“There is some talk of compensation from the government side. A decision has been taken and in it, Rs 5 lakh is to be given to each family, as well as for those who have been injured, apart from this the rest of the proceedings are going on, so we will look at all the elements and conclude this very soon,” ADG Bhaskar said.

Further details on the incident are awaited.