Hyderabad: Heat generated from over charging of Electric Vehicles (EV) parked at the basement of Ruby Pride Luxury Hotel, Kummarguda, Secunderabad, had triggered an explosion in which eight persons succumbed to burns and 11 suffered burn injuries.
CLUES team officers confirmed that the vehicles were plugged for charging for a long duration and the lithium-ion battery (GEMO PAI brand) packs that has hundred individual battery cells reacted due to overheat and exploded.
“The charging was kept for a long time and the cause of the explosion was that the thermal control runway acting as standby and controlling the temperature couldn't function as there were multiple explosions from several bikes that were covered with a polythene cover and parked without any gap,” he said.
Usually a positive feedback loop always keeps the temperatures from rising in a single cell and in a worst case scenario, the increased pressure from the higher temperature led to the cell splitting open and rapidly heating the surrounding cells that made the explosion even more intensive, sources in the clues team disclosed.
The hotel was seized and owners of the building and the bike showroom Rajender Singh Bhagga, his kin Sumeet Singh Bhagga, were booked under various sections of the IPC 304 11 culpable section 337 causing hurt to human life by endangering life, sections 304 II, act done with the concern with possibilities to cause death but without any intention to cause death) and section 9 B of Explosives Act.
