Mumbai: Cylinder Blast - Three from Kundapur Among Four Killed
 
Rons Bantwal
With Inputs from Silvester D'Souza, Kundapur
Daijiworld Media Network – Mumbai (VM)
 
Mumbai, Nov 22: Four People were killed and around 17 others injured in a gas cylinder blast at a godown of Mahaveer steel shop located in Ekvira building, in front of Virar (West) railway station around 8.32 pm on Tuesday November 20. The shop belongs to Dilip Jain.
 
Among the four dead, three were from Kundapur taluk in Udupi district.

Govind, Manjunath Shetty, Manjunath Poojary

They have been identified as Govind Shetty (28), Manjunath Shetty (26) and Manjunath Poojary (25). They were working in an adjoining hotel named ‘Vadvalite’ owned by a Marathi person. Amongst the three, Govind and Manjunath Shetty are siblings and Manjunath Poojary was their close friend.

Govind Shetty and Manjunath Shetty were the sons of Ramayya and Nagamma Shetty. Govind was married to Jyothi Shetty and the couple has two children - daughter Sinchana studying in second standard and son Sajju who is 4 year old.

Manjunath Poojary is survived by his parents Shankar and Eramma Poojary, a younger brother and a sister.

Unconfirmed reports stated that Dilip Jain also died in the incident. It is said that Jain was illegally transferring LPG from cylinders for industrial purpose to domestic ones, which reportedly led to the blast. Sources said that by doing so, he would illegally sell cylinders to auto rickshaw drivers.

Among the 17 injured, two are said to have sustained 90 percent burns.
 
The impact of the blast was such that, the adjoining ‘Shreya’ hotel belonging to Virar Shankar Shetty, former president of Virar hotel association was partially damaged. However, the customers and waiters had a lucky escape as they left the place immediately. A tailoring shop beside ‘Shreya’ hotel was said to be completely damaged and incurred a heavy loss.
 
Speaking to Daijiworld, Nagaraj Shetty Karkala who was managing ‘Vadvalite’ hotel said that the store room of Mahaveer steel was beside their hotel and the workers were residing in the same place.
 
The injured persons were soon rushed to Sanjeevini hospital. On November 21, around 5 am, medical examination was conducted and their body was sent to Kundapur in Ambulance.
 
Nagaraj Shetty said that one of their employees was married and thus he has promised to help his family. In this regard, he has asked his wife and other family members to come to Mumbai.
 
Kshithij Hithendra Thakur and Vasai MLA Vivek Pandith visited the spot and promised to provide relief to the victims.
 
A case has been registered at Virar (West) police station.