Crime branch to probe Bawana inferno
TRAGEDY Man who had taken the building on rent booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, arrested; police are probing allegations that the gate of the factory had been locked from outside to ensure workers don’t leave midway
NEW DELHI: The probe into the Bawana fire tragedy, in which 17 factory workers lost their lives on Saturday, has been transferred to the Delhi Police Crime Branch. They will probe how safety rules were being flouted and explosives stored inside the factory to fix accountability, police said.
Police on Sunday morning arrested factory owner Manoj Jain,49, from his house in Trinagar, northwest Delhi. He has been booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Jain, however, does not own the building and was operating the unit on rent. Police said Jain earlier ran a plastic toys factory from the same building.
Police said there are contradictory claims by the injured workers that they were made to package firecrackers and Jain, who ran the unit, saying he used the building to store Holi colours.
“Jain’s claims are being scrutinised as the workers say that explosives that pop out colours were being made in the unit. This is done by assembling explosives with Holi colours and when triggered, the devices release powdered colours. Such devices are in demand during the festival,” said Delhi police spokesperson Dependra Pathak.
Delhi Fire Services chief GC Misra said the presence of the explosives inside the building was undeniable. Mishra said explosions were heard even when the firemen entered the building.
“About six of the victims were found at one spot, which suggests that the workers did not get a chance to flee. That happens in case of cracker explosion, which is rapid and has the intensity to instantly kill someone. Our men had to tread cautiously as they were initially not aware what kind of combustible material was there,” said Misra.
Police have registered the FIR under sections of Explosives Act. A forensic team collected samples from building.
“The Forensic Science Laboratories (FSL) is likely to submit the report in a week. The crime branch will then investigate the quantity in which the firecrackers were stored and their type,” he added.
Asked if there was a negli- gence on the part of the local police, which failed to check the presence of explosives, Pathak said since the unit had started operating recently, it was possible that there was not enough time to gather intelligence.
“Jain is the factory owner but not the building owner.he had the taken the building on rent on January 1 and started work a few days later. So, it is possible that even before the beat staff could find out that explosives were stored, the fire broke out,” said Pathak.
Earlier, DCP (Rohini)rajneesh Gupta had said that Jain had taken the premise on rent on January 1 for ₹25,000. He had given a clean chit to the owner of the three-storey building where the factory was being run. Pathak, however, said the conditions in the rent agreement and whether Jain had specified the exact purpose for which he was using the building and conveyed it to the landlord or not will be investigated .
The cause of the fire is short circuit, preliminary investigations have revealed. “It appears that the fire started due to a short circuit in a machine used for packaging kept on the ground floor. It spread on to the other floors where the victims were present,” said Misra.
Of the 17 dead, 11 bodies were found on the first floor, three on the ground floor, two on the stairs and a lone body was found in the basement, according to Misra. Two others climbed on to the second floor from where they jumped to save themselves and were injured.
Police are also probing allegations that the main gate was locked from outside when the fire broke out.
Chhote Lal, a tea seller near the factory, said an hour before the fire broke out, he had delivered 35 cups of tea inside indicating the presence of as many people there. Sukhda had joined the factory just two days ago after coming back from a vacation from her hometown of Sitapur in UP. Her husband, Mahipal Rawat, was a porter at a factory nearby. At around midnight, the news of her death reached Harshit Tiwari, a relative. “I did not know how to react,” said Tiwari. On the first Metro of the morning, Tiwari rushed to Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital in with Sukhda’s husband and a neighbour. The family left with the body for their village in a rented vehicle on Sunday afternoon. Sony, who was four-month pregnant, was only on her second day at the job when the tragedy struck. She hadn’t even completed her first year of marriage. She lived with her husband, a labourer, in Metro Vihar. Till last week, she was employed at another factory in Bawana Industrial Area. She would leave home at 9am and was usually returned after 7.30pm. Her mother works in another factory located a walking distance from Sony’s own workplace. Both usually returned home together after work. Hailing from a village in Unnao district in Uttar Pradesh, Rohit was the youngest from his village to come to Delhi for work. He had come to Delhi two years ago accompanying one of his relatives to Delhi and began working at a factory in the locality. He would earn between ₹8,000 and ₹10,000 a month, depending on the number of days he put to work. He had started work at the factory, where the tragedy struck, 15 days ago. He was unmarried and lived inside the factory with some of his relatives, his family said.