A hairdryer explosion in the city of Bagalkot, Karnataka, has left 37-year-old Basamma Yarnal heavily injured. The police are investigating the weird circumstances leading up to this accident as a tragic accident or something more threatening.

The incident started as a routine event, a courier delivery arrived at the home of Rajeshwari, an elderly local woman. Rajeshwari wasn't at home at that time and asked her neighbor to receive the package. The neighbor, Basamma, who is the widow of a former army soldier, agreed and in the presence of the delivery person opened the package.

The package included a hair dryer that might have looked like an ordinary one at face value. However, when Basamma plugged it in to test it out, the device exploded, seriously injuring her. The blast saw her lose all fingers on one hand and, as of now, she is being treated at the local hospital.

Rajeshwari said that she had never ordered a hair dryer. Now, police are wondering if perhaps the package was delivered to the wrong address or if someone deliberately sent this to injure another person.

Investigators are also looking into the possibility that Basamma herself was the target of the explosive device. On the other hand, they are not dismissing the possibility of a conspiracy between Basamma and the threatening delivery.

Preliminary investigations indicate that the explosion might have been due to electrical short-circuiting. However, the hair dryer itself was made with inferior material. Designed for far higher wattage than most household products, it is hazardous to use.

The identified device is a product of a company from Visakhapatnam. It was shipped locally from Bagalkot. Police are now trying to find out who ordered and paid for the faulty appliance.

It is not the first tragedy Basamma faced. She lost her husband, Papanna Yarnal, an ex-soldier who served in the army, due to an electric shock he received while deployed in Jammu and Kashmir in 2017. The fact that both tragedies seem connected has caused this issue to be both emotionally and psychologically more challenging for the community and investigators alike.

The authority has lodged a case and is pursuing a few leads. Was the hair dryer explosion some kind of sabotage or just an accident with a faulty product? The police are determined to get to the bottom of this disturbing incident.