Scrap dealer gets 1-year jail term for causing death by negligence of four

Additional sessions judge Nandkishor More held the scrap dealer, Bablu Paswan, guilty of criminal negligence, and sentenced him to one year’s rigorous imprisonment, though the prosecution had sought his conviction for the stringent charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder

MUMBAI: The Dindoshi sessions court has convicted a 30-year-old scrap dealer for causing the death of two women and two children, in a gas-leak induced fire in a slum pocket in Kandivali in 2013. Additional sessions judge Nandkishor More held the scrap dealer, Bablu Paswan, guilty of criminal negligence, and sentenced him to one year’s rigorous imprisonment, though the prosecution had sought his conviction for the stringent charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

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According to the prosecution, Paswan used to empty cylinders containing inflammable gas into an open drainage line in front of his scrap shop near the Friends Shejar Committee Chawl in Kandivali West, and continued doing so despite warnings from local residents about the hazards involved. On February 7 2013, a person identified as Abdul Khan threw a lit cigarette into the drain, resulting in a fire which swept through the area, with several residents sustaining severe burns. Four of them, two women and two children, subsequently succumbed to the burns.

Khan, also an accused in the case, was acquitted of all charges due to lack of evidence linking him to the ignition of the fire. After hearing both sides and perusal of evidence on record, the court held that “it was the imperative duty of the accused no. 1 (Paswan) to have adopted the course which he had neglected or failed to adopt”.

“The evidence on record sufficiently proved that Paswan acted negligently and the death and injuries caused to the victims are the direct and proximate result of his negligent act,” the court ruled on December 12, and handed him a one-year prison term, saying it “would meet the ends of justice”.