VASCO
Amid allegations by a family member suspecting foul play after his sister and their mother were killed in a cylinder blast at New Vaddem in Vasco, police have clarified that they have been carrying out a proper investigation into the incident from all possible angles.
A senior official at the Vasco police station said the Vasco police has also written to the fire department seeking a detailed report into the incident. "We initially got a call that there was a cylinder blast in the house and just as our police team reached the house, we saw an ambulance and people then began stating that there were two deaths in the house due to a cylinder blast,” said the police official.
“When our officers reached the site, both women were already lying dead in the flat and we began our preliminary enquiry. During the investigation, we realised that the cylinder was intact and we then began probing the incident on the basis of explosion due to gas accumulation. We were then informed by a neighbour that the knob of the gas regulator was on when he rushed to the flat after the explosion and that he had closed it after reaching the flat and this raised our suspicion.
“We now needed to know which of the three persons in the flat had kept the knob on and to ascertain whether it was left on, deliberately or accidentally,” the official said.
The police official said a forensic team was also pressed into service the next day to assist police in investigations, to probe the incident from all angles. “As investigations were being carried out, we learnt that the husband was not in the house during the incident. The husband said when the incident happened he was on leave and was on the way to the market. When he came to know that he had forgotten his identity card, he returned and was shocked to see what had happened.
“We have now written to the fire department seeking a detailed report and the possible reasons that could have led to a gas leakage and a subsequent explosion. The fire department is the right authority to provide us with the relevant details and their findings, after which we can also start probing that angle as well,” the police official added. “There is no doubt that an explosion took place on account of gas leakage due to an open knob of the cylinder regulator.”
Shivani Rajawat (26) who was pregnant and her mother, Jaidevi Chauhan (50), were killed after the blast at New Vaddem on Saturday morning. Shivani's husband Anurag Singh works in the Navy and was not at home when the incident occurred.
