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Sitapur gas leak tragedy: Chemical unit owner, employee booked for murder
The Sitapur police on Friday booked Balaji Rasayan Udhyog owner Sukesh Gupta, an employee Sirajjudeen, and an unidentified person on murder and criminal conspiracy
The Sitapur police on Friday booked Balaji Rasayan Udhyog owner Sukesh Gupta, an employee Sirajjudeen, and an unidentified person on murder and criminal conspiracy charges for the death of seven people, including three children, allegedly due to a gas leak in Jalalpur village of the district on Wednesday night, an official said.
Circle officer, Biswan, Samar Bahadur said, “A case has been filed against two named and one unidentified person We are investigating the case.” The case has been filed on the complaint of Munnawwar, brother of one of the deceased.
The district administration has meanwhile ordered to scan other such units in the district, which could turn hazardous for locals. Officials of several departments, including the industries department, have been making a list and checking units across the state.
The panel instituted to probe the incident revealed that the unit was registered under Udyog Aadhaar Memorandum (UAM) system. Hence, the local industries department had not direct control on it.
“The unit was registered as a trading unit but it was not functioning as per the permission (granted to it). We asked for permission documents for manufacturing or the pollution control board certificate, since they were dealing in a hazardous chemical. But so far, the firm hasn’t furnished anything,” a government official said, pleading anonymity.
He added, “The firm was registered with the sales tax department last year.”
The police probe also suggested that more than four tankers had arrived at the chemical unit on Wednesday night.
“Sirajjudeen was there at the factory, when tankers were cleaned and washed in the drain that flows through the carpet unit, where seven people died on Wednesday night,” the circle officer said.
“A few names of firms from Lucknow, Barabanki and Kanpur have cropped up, as the tankers belong to them,” he added.
Seven people who died in the tragedy were identified as Atiq, 45, his wife Saira, 42 and children Ayesha, 12, Afroz, 8, and Faisal (18months), and two others, Motu, 75 and Pahalwan, 70.
A doctor at the Sitapur district hospital said the cause of the death was asphyxia (suffocation).
