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Fire at illegal factory: Police arrest owner of manufacturing unit
The Ghaziabad police on Monday arrested the owner of the illegal factory manufacturing party poppers in Modinagar where eight persons, including seven women and
The Ghaziabad police on Monday arrested the owner of the illegal factory manufacturing party poppers in Modinagar where eight persons, including seven women and an 18-year-old man, were charred to death in a major fire on Sunday. The police said they are on the lookout for a cracker manufacturer from Farrukhnagar who illegally supplied raw material to the owner.
As many as 11 women were also left injured in the fire, including two still in critical condition, in Bakharwa village of Modinagar following which the police registered an FIR under IPC sections 304, 336, 338 besides levying provisions of the Explosives Act and Criminal Law Amendment Act. District magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey on Monday said that he has also asked the police to initiate proceedings to add charges under the National Security Act (NSA) against the factory owner, identified as Nitin Chaudhary, the prime suspect in the case.
The police said Chaudhary, who was arrested from Modinagar itself , had employed over 150 people, mostly women, in his factory. The police said he was engaged in making reels for yarns for over ten years and had started manufacturing party poopers in November, 2019. “Chaudhary had come in contact with one Waseem (single name) who is a fireworks’ manufacturer from Farrukhnagar who supplied him with raw materials. The suspects told us that before Sunday’s incident many small fires were reported from his factory, but all of them were doused on time. He was in house when the incident took place and then fled,” said Neeraj Kumar Jadaun, superintendent of police (rural). The suspect has no criminal record.
The police said they are on the lookout for Waseem and are also probing the role of other persons who could be involved in the operation of the illegal factory. A policeman has already been suspended for alleged laxity.
Cracker manufacturing in Farrukhnagar had completely stopped in October 2018 after a Supreme Court order imposed a ban on the sale of non-green crackers in the wake of rising pollution levels. “It is probably due to this reason that Waseem had partnered up with Chaudhary and supplied him with raw materials in Bakharwa. Our local police post in-charge had inspected the illegal factory about fortnight ago but failed to take any action, and this is why he was suspended on Sunday,” Jadun added.
Chadhaury’s arrest comes on a day when the National Human Rights’ Commission issued a notice to the Uttar Pradesh chief secretary and the director general of police (DGP) calling for a detailed report into Sunday’s incident. The notice gave a four-week deadline for the filling of the report which should include “action taken against the factory owner and the delinquent officers/officials, status of the medical treatment being provided to the injured and relief/rehabilitation provided to the aggrieved by the state.”
“It is necessary for the local administration to fix the responsibility of the concerned officer and start departmental/criminal proceedings against them immediately to ensure justice to the victims and their families,” the NHRC said in its notice.
The UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday had announced a compensation of ₹4 lakh for the families of the deceased.
The police on Monday said five of the deceased were from Bakharwa village, while three, including two minor girls, aged about 16-17 years, were from the nearby locality of Vijay Nagar. “Initially, there was some discrepancy in the identification of victims and some of the villagers had wrongly identified women from Vijay Nagar as residents of Bakhwara. Since minor girls were also employed at the factory, we will also add more sections related to child labour. As many as 11 persons are under treatment and two of them are in critical condition,” SP Jadaun said.
On Monday, the families of the eight deceased arrived at the Hindon mortuary where the were bodies were sent for autopsy.
“My niece Parul was 17 years old and was a class 8 student. Her school was closed due to the lockdown, so she, along with one other girl and another boy from Vijay Nagar, had started working at the factory. All three of them died in the fire incident. Parul’s father had died 10 years ago, and she has five siblings. She just wanted to help her family financially,” said Manohar Kumar, a relative of one of the victims.
“My mother was working in the factory since December, 2019 and was got about ₹4,500 per month. We had often asked her to stop going to the factory but she continued to work there. The factory owner had employed people from dozens of families in Bakharwa for the packaging of the party poopers. About a fortnight ago, a complaint about the factory was also made. The police came to the factory and did nothing,” said Deepak Kumar, son of one of the deceased, 45-year-old Baby (single name).
