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4 more arrested for blast at Bareilly cracker factory
Four more arrested in Bareilly firecracker explosion that killed six, including four women and two children. Investigations into illegal operations ongoing.
Four more people were arrested in connection with the explosion at an illegal firecracker manufacturing unit in a village in Bareilly on Wednesday, senior police officials said on Sunday. The incident had claimed six lives—four women and two children.
Among the four, three are brothers and another is a relative of the prime accused in the case who was arrested a day after the incident. The manufacturing unit was operational in the house of one Rehman Shah, a resident of Kalyanpur village under Sirauli police station limits of Bareilly.
The police had registered an FIR under appropriate sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita, the Explosives Act and the Explosive Substances Act against seven people. Among those booked were Rahman Shah, his son Wahid, his daughter Fatima’s husband Nazim and Nazim’s four brothers. One of Nazim’s brothers, Nasir, was the license holder of the manufacturing unit in the past. He was arrested a day after the incident.
A senior police official said Rehman Shah had been arrested and sent to jail after he was discharged from the hospital on Sunday morning. Nasir’s brothers Nazim, Mohd Miya and Ahmad Miya were also arrested and jailed. The remaining two accused--Nasir’s another brother Hasnain and Rehman’s son Wahid--were still at large, he added.
Rehman’s daughter-in-law and Wahid’s wife Tabassum and her two sons of below five years of age; Nasir’s wife Sitara Begum; Hasnain’s wife Nikhat and one Rukshana, who was Rehman’s neighbour, were killed in the blast.
It was found in the preliminary investigation that Nasir, who had a licence to only sell firecrackers, was operating the illegal cracker factory at the residence of Rehman Shah. In the incident, Rehman, his wife Chhoti Begum and their daughter and Nazim’s wife Fatima were injured.
