Pramesh S Jain & Yogesh K Porwar
An explosion sound was heard in Bengaluru near Mount Carmel college as Union Minister for Home Amit Shah was returning from an event in Chikkaballapur
, causing a major scare for the safety of the minister.
However, upon inspection by police, it was later found to be due to a short circuit.
The sound was heard at around 4:30 p.m. late this afternoon in Vasanth Nagar according to the reports, and it was on Amit Shah’s route.
When the police investigated the cause for the sound, they saw that underground electric cables had short circuited in sewage.
Panic gripped among the security personnel for sometime when short circuit followed by blast sound and thick smoke noticed from the drain on the route of union home minister Amit Shah near mount carmel college on Friday evening.
Senior police officials led by City police commissioner, Kamal Pant along with Sandeep Patil,MN Anucheth with others as bomb squad visited the spot and changed the route map of Mr. Shah as precautionary measures before supervising the probe.
It was a short circuit caused in the street light pole due to flickering of the light,a senior officer said adding that the power supply has been disconnected and a team of officials from electrical inspectorates and BESCOM visited the spot to rectify the problem.
As per the original route,the convoy had to travel from Balabrooie Guesthouse,Shangri-La hotel on Palace Road,Mount Carmel College and then to the venue.
On learning about the incident, the convoy was diverted via Basaveshwara Circle (Chalukya Hotel) up to the HP petrol pump next to Cauvery theatre where it took a U-turn and then a left at BDA Junction near Chakravarty Layout to arrive at the venue.
City Police Commissioner Kamal Pant said Bescom authorities immediately cut the power to minimise any possible damage.
Electrical inspectorate with BESCOM authorities examined the spot but are yet to ascertain the reason for the incident, although they admitted to the cables not being checked ahead of Shah’s visit.
However,Bescom engineers defended,The duct from where the smoke came from had no Bescom cables.
There are cables for dish antennas, internet, street lights and other cables.The duct needs to be opened and closely assessed.
There have been no untoward incidents or power interruptions here earlier.
Earlier traffic movement in and around the BJP office in Malleshwaram was restricted for sometime due to Union Home Minister visit .
People who visited Malleshwaram market area for the purchase and shopping of Ugadi festival had to face tough time.
