Man fleeing Delhi fire that killed 17 arrested

NEW DELHI: A man running a plastics warehouse in the Indian capital where 17 people, including 10 women, were killed in a fire, has been taken into custody, police said yesterday.

Preliminary investigations revealed that Manoj Jain had been running a repackaging unit in the two-storey building in the Bawana industrial area in what was registered as a plastics warehouse, Delhi Police spokesman Dependra Pathak said.

“Delhi Police has registered a case under Indian Penal Code 304, 285 and the Explosives Act and arrested the person who took this place on rent on January 1 and was doing this work illegally,” he said.

The charges are of negligence relating to fire and culpable homicide. There were 20 to 25 workers in the building when the fire broke out on Saturday night on the ground floor and quickly spread to the upper floor and basement, fire official GC Mishra said.

The building had only one narrow staircase leading to one exit and most of the victims died of asphyxiation. Some died from burns.

While some people managed to escaped, two – a man and a woman – suffered fractures when they jumped from the terrace of the building to escape the fire, Mishra said.

The Bawana industrial area has small manufacturing and processing units, many of which do not comply with fire safety regulations.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has ordered a probe into the incident. He also announced assistance of 500 000 rupees (R95 500) each for families of the dead and 100 000 rupees each for the injured. – dpa