HC: Who supplied banned chemical?

Kochi: The high court on Monday asked the state government to inform whether any probe was conducted as to who supplied the banned potassium chlorate that was used for the tragic Puttingal temple fireworks.
Justice P Ubaid asked prosecution to report about the investigation conducted to trace the person who supplied the banned chemical to the contractors who conducted the fireworks during the hearing on the bail applications filed by the accused, including contractors, suppliers, and office bearers of the temple management committee.
Senior public prosecutor Nooranad C Rasheed that the chemical was given to the contractors by one of the suppliers and that it was sourced from Tamil Nadu. A police team had gone to Tamil Nadu and had searched the place where the chemical was said to be stored but could not confiscate the chemical, the court was told.
The counsels representing the suppliers contended that there was no mention of the banned chemical in the report filed by prosecution and that the allegation was baseless. After perusing the report, the court too agreed that the prosecution's report didn't state that the banned chemical was supplied by any of the petitioners before the court.
Advocate C P Udayabhanu, who represents the office bearers of the temple management committee, submitted that temple committees usually didn't have any facility to test whether any banned chemical was being used or the quantity of explosives used. Their relationship with the contractors who conduct the fireworks was based on a written agreement, he argued. However, the court asked how can the committee claim ignorance when over 5,000kg of explosives were used while the agreement was only for 30kg in total.