Days after fire, body found at illegal factory inside Ggm home

A 24-year-old man, Hetram Kewat, was found dead in a charred house after a fire at an illegal chemical manufacturing unit in Basai.

The charred body of a 24-year-old man was found inside a house in Basai, Sector 9B, on Friday, where a chemical manufacturing unit allegedly running illegally caught fire on Wednesday evening, police said.

Singh said the unit had stored chemicals and was involved in manufacturing toilet cleaners, phenyl, and their repackaging. (Parveen Kumar/HT)

The deceased was identified as Hetram Kewat, a resident of Panna in Madhya Pradesh.

Station house officer (SHO) at Sector-9A police station, Avtar Singh, said neither locals nor the property owner informed the fire department or police about the fire, adding that the fire extinguished itself.

The SHO said that when the factory workers were cleaning the rooms on Friday morning, they found a charred body amid ashes and alerted the police.

Singh said the unit had stored chemicals and was involved in manufacturing toilet cleaners, phenyl, and their repackaging.

“The deceased lived on the premises and was involved in the manufacturing of toilet cleaners and their packaging,” he said, adding that it was yet unclear how the fire erupted. The body has been sent for autopsy.

“We had no information that a toilet-cleaning manufacturing unit was functioning here. We have not found any records yet to establish that it had permission to run,” a labour department official said.

A local, who wished to remain anonymous, said the property belonged to a person who lives in the same area and had rented it to a family from Bihar.

“The landlord lives in the same locality. The unit earlier operated from another location,” the local said.

Akhilesh Kewat, the deceased’s elder brother, said he doesn’t know how the fire occurred or whether there was any negligence on the part of the owner, and is hesitant to register a police complaint.

He said that his brother survived with his wife, a daughter and two sons, all aged below five years, who live in Panna.

“My brother was working at the unit for the last three years. He was receiving a monthly remuneration of ₹ 12,000. He used to live and cook inside a room in the unit,” he said.