Crackers were produced illegally at blast site: Panel

Parvesh Sharma

Tribune News Service

Sangrur, November 20

A magisterial committee, which was formed to investigate the Sullar Gharat blast, has concluded in its report that the accused were running not a godown, but an illegal crackers manufacturing factory.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Upkar Singh, who heads the committee, said the report would be submitted to Deputy Commissioner APS Virk tomorrow.

The committee has indicted factory owners Pardeep Kumar and his father Gandhi Ram, booked under Sections 304, 308 and 427 of the IPC, the Explosives Act and the Explosive Substances Act. They are lodged in the Sangrur jail.

The report has concluded that the owners did not have a licence to store crackers in the factory. “The use of highly vulnerable explosives to manufacture crackers by untrained workers caused the blast, killing seven persons,” it said.

It has also come to light the accused had five licences in the names of their family members to store crackers. But they had stored crackers illegally on Gujran road (the blast site) and in Maura village.

Earlier, a report of Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Mohali, confirmed the presence of pressure-sensitive explosive material at the blast site.