Two days on, no trace of unit owner, 2 managers

Gaurav Kanthwal

Mohali, April 23

Two days after four workers died of asphyxiation in Federal Agro Industry Private Limited, Behera, the owner and its two managers remain at large.

On the statement of Surender Singh, brother of deceased Manak Singh, factory owner Kaamil Qureshi, alias Bunty Qureshi; general manager PS Hameed and Shahid Hameed have been booked under Sections 304 and 34 of the IPC at the Dera Bassi police station.

The antecedents of all suspects are not known. The owners of the export-oriented unit dealing in frozen buffalo meat fled the plant as soon as an FIR of culpable homicide not amounting to murder was registered against them.

Earlier, one of the five members of the local team that had gone inside the plant after the accident was roughed up by Shahid, after which a protest erupted.

Dera Bassi ASP Dr Darpan Ahluwalia, said: “The police are searching for the suspects and will be arrested soon.”

There is anger and resentment among the victims’ families and local residents, who have questioned inaction on part of the police in arresting the suspects and lax enforcement of labour laws here.

The Dera Bassi area has hundreds of industrial units where many accidents go unreported since victims are usually migrant workers. No remedial measures are taken by the labour authorities, they allege. Nearly 1,500 workers, mainly from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Nepal, are employed at the buffalo meat processing unit with some locals on desk jobs.

Victims Manak Singh (25) of Behera; Janak Thapa (35), a Nepalese national; and Sridhar Pandey (25) and Kurban Ansari (35), both from Bihar, were employed at the meat plant at a salary of Rs 15,000 to Rs 18,000 a month and were called on a holiday to clean up the pit for extra payment when the mishap occurred.

1 of two freezers working at mortuary

• The mortuary at Civil Hospital in Dera Bassi is in tatters. There are two freezers to hold four bodies. However, one has been non-functional for some time
• Two bodies had to be shifted to a private hospital at Dera Bassi overnight and were brought back later on Saturday afternoon
• Post-mortem of Sridhar Pandey was conducted on Saturday and the body handed over on Sunday to kin, who had arrived from Nepal

Most workers migrants

• Dera Bassi area has hundreds of units where accidents often go unreported as victims are migrant workers
• Nearly 1,500 workers, mainly from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Nepal, are employed at the buffalo meat processing unit with some locals on desk jobs

Hunt on, arrests soon

The police are searching for the suspects, who will be arrested soon. — Dr Darpan Ahluwalia, Dera Bassi ASP