Police said on Sunday they were hunting for the owner of illegally stored explosives which accidentally detonated in the centre of a crowded town in Madhya Pradesh, killing at least 88 people.
Rajendra Kaswa, a local businessman, has been charged with illegally storing gelatin sticks and other explosives next to a restaurant and busy junction in the town of Petlawad, officials said. He also faces charges of criminal negligence and culpable homicide.
"He is on the run. One of his accomplices has already been arrested. He has been charged under the Explosives Act," divisional commissioner Sanjay Dubey told Reuters by telephone from the site of Saturday's blast, one of the deadliest in India in recent years.
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The explosions ripped through the restaurant as labourers and children ate their breakfast, destroying the diner and nearby buildings and sending debris hurtling into the street where travellers queued for buses in the morning rush hour.
More than 100 were injured in the blasts, 15 of them seriously.
