Day after blast, cracker godown owners booked

Parvesh Sharma

Tribune News Service

Sangrur, September 20

The police today registered a case against the owners of a cracker godown where a blast occurred last night, even as the number of casualties rose to five.

Pardeep Kumar and his father Gandhi Ram, owners of the godown at Sular Gharat in the district, were booked under Sections 304, 308 and 427 of the IPC, Sections 9-B of the Explosives Act, and Sections 3 and 4 of the Explosive Substances Act. The police sealed four other cracker godowns in the township.

Deputy Commissioner APS Virk has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident. He has formed a committee including ADC (General) Upkar Singh, SDM Sunam Rajdeep Brar and Dirba DSP Yogesh Kumar and sought a report within a week.

The deceased were identified as Gurpiar Singh (24), Karamjit Singh (20), brothers Swarnjit Singh (20) and Gurjant Singh (22) and Gursewak Singh (19). Five persons were injured, of which four were admitted to the Sangrur Civil Hospital and one to Rajindra Hospital, Patiala.

Families of deceased initially refused to allow the post mortem of deceased, but later after the assurances from DC for adequate finical compensation , they agreed.

The DC said, “There are only two licences, under the names of Bhagirath Ram and Gandhi Ram, to store crackers in Sular Gharat. But we have found that five godowns were operating in the town. One was destroyed in the blast, while the rest have been sealed. We are trying to trace the owners of these godowns.”

“We have confiscated seven machines from a godown on the Maura road. it seems these were being used to manufacture crackers,” said ADC Upkar Singh.

Seeking a high-level inquiry, Harpal Cheema, AAP MLA from Dirba, said the storage of crackers on such a large scale in a township was not possible without the involvement of officers concerned.

CM announces Rs 1 lakh each for kin 

Chandigarh: Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Wednesday ordered an investigation into the cracker godown blast, while announcing Rs 1 lakh each as compensation to the families of those killed. The CM directed the district administration to ascertain the cause of the incident and take remedial measures to prevent its recurrence. He also ordered stringent implementation of fire safety rules/guidelines in the operations of all business establishments and industries using hazardous and highly inflammable material. TNS