Batala factory blast: Challan filed, only one accused named

BATALA : Over 100 days after a blast at an illegal firecracker factory in Batala on September 4 killed 24 persons and injured 27, the Batala police filed a 1,662page charge-sheet in court on Wednesday. In the charge-sheet, the police name Ramandeep Singh Rommy, a relative of factory owner, Jaspal Singh, as the sole accused.

The factory had been operating in a densely-populated area right under the nose of the administration. Taking a serious note of the incident, Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh had ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident.

In the charge-sheet, filed after DSP Prem Kumar conducted a thorough inquiry, police have recorded statements of 127 persons, including those who were injured in the blast.

Civil Lines station house officer (SHO) Mukhtiar Singh said the challan was presented in court only after a report from district attorney (legal) Amandeep Sandhu and public prosecutor Sandeep Sharma. The district administration has already suspended three of its employees after additional deputy commissioner Tejinderpal Singh Sandhu conducted a magisterial probe.

The relatives of those killed have dubbed the charge-sheet as well as the magisterial inquiry as a mere eyewash, claiming that the top brass in the civil administration as well as the police had been shielded. “As expected, all those officers, whose laxity resulted in the killing of 24 persons have been saved,” one of the relatives claimed.