Ejipura cylinder blast case: Deceased kin fights over distribution of compensation

BENGALURU: In a bizarre incident, families of the deceased couple Shravana and Ashwini and their three-year-old daughter Sanjana, who died after their house collapsed following an LPG cylinder blast at Ejipura on Monday, entered into an argument over the distribution of compensation amount announced by the government, even as the postmortem of their grandchild Sanjana was going on at Victoria Hospital on Friday.

While Shravana and Ashwini died on the spot along with five others of different families in the incident, their daughter Sanjana was rescued in a joint operation by the Fire and Emergency, NDRF, SDRF and Civil Defence personnel. She had suffered 60 percent burns and she was shifted to a hospital, where she died on Thursday after battling for life for three days.

On Friday morning during Sanjana's postmortem, Ashwini's father Murthy and Shravana's mother Shantamma, her grandparents, waiting outside the mortuary reportedly entered into an argument over the compensation amount. Murthy reportedly went and asked Shanthamma to give him some money as his daughter Ashwini was with her for more than 20 years. Shanthamma told him to wait until Sanjana's last rites were carried out and that it was not the right time to discuss the issue. Later they took the body of Sanjana and performed last rites at a crematorium in Wilson Garden.

Following the collapse, the government  announced a Rs 5 lakh compensation for each of the deceased. Eight persons including Sanjana lost their lives in the incident.