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870 kilos of banned crackers seized from northwest Delhi shop, owner held
New Delhi
New Delhi
Police have seized 870 kilos of banned firecrackers from a shop in northwest Delhi’s Jahangirpuri.
Interestingly, the shop from where the banned fireworks were seized had a permanent licence from the Petroleum And Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO) for storing and selling 600 kilos of green crackers, police said on Wednesday.
The owner of the shop, Pankaj Kansal, was arrested and later released on bail, said deputy commissioner of police (northwest) Vijayanta Arya.
“Kansal runs a fireworks shop — Kansal Fireworks — in DDA market Jahangirpuri. He had got a permanent licence from PESO for storing and selling green crackers. We are writing to PESO, informing them about the seizure of banned firecrackers from Kansal’s shop and seeking cancellation of his licence,” said DCP Arya.
The raided shop is among the 143 establishments in Delhi that were granted permanent licence by PESO for storing and selling green crackers, the police said.
This is the third major seizure of banned firecrackers in the city in the last ten days, and second in as many days ahead of Diwali.
In Wednesday’s incident, the Mahendra Park police on Tuesday received information regarding hoarding of banned firecrackers in huge quantity at a shop in Jahangirpuri’s DDA market, DCP Arya said.
“We raided the shop and seized 46 cartons containing 870 kilos of banned crackers. The shop owner failed to give a appropriate response as to why he had stored conventional firecrackers, despite them being banned by the Supreme Court before last year’s Diwali,” said the DCP.
When contacted over phone, Kansal claimed that he had only stored the banned crackers and had no plans to sell them.
DCP Arya, however, said that as per the guidelines all traders dealing in firecrackers were directed to return the banned crackers to the manufacturers last year itself.
