Forty-three people were killed when a fire broke out at a luggage manufacturing factory on an early morning in Anaj Mandi area of Delhi on Sunday. Now, an FIR has been registered in connection with the fire incident and the case has been transferred to the crime branch for further investigation.
The factor owner Mohammed Rehan has now been detained by the Police. Earlier, it was reported that he was absconding.
#NewsAlert – Anaj Mandi factory owner Mohammed Rehan detained by Delhi Police.#DelhiFireTragedy pic.twitter.com/8JsTqxGSrE
— News18 (@CNNnews18) December 8, 2019
As per reports, the owner of the plot is one Mohammed Raheem who had purchased it ten years ago. Later, he had distributed it equally among his three sons: Rehan, Shan e-lahi and Imran. The fire occurred in Rehan’s portion of the factory. Earlier, it had been reported that a case has been registered against the factory owner under section 304 of IPC (culpable homicide not amounting to murder punishable with a maximum imprisonment of 10 years).
“An FIR has been registered in the incident under Section 304 of IPC. The case has been transferred to the crime branch now. At 5.22 am, information about fire in a building was received by the police. Fire tenders were rushed to the spot to douse the fire. In the rescue operation, we saved around 60 people but unfortunately 43 people lost their lives,” Delhi Police PRO MS Randhawa said.
“Prima facie, the fire seems to have occurred due to short circuit. There was a lot of plastic on the premises due to which there was smoke after the fire occurred. The deaths have mostly occurred due to asphyxiation due to smoke. We have shifted most of the injured to LNJP Hospital and Lady Hardinge Hospital,” he added.
It was also reported that the four-storeyed building didn’t have a fire clearance from the Delhi Fire Service and no fire safety equipment was installed on its premises. Officials said that none of the units had a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) from the fire department and the congested area made rescue operations difficult.
Over 50 people were inside the building when the fire broke out today morning. 15 fire tenders were sent to the spot after receiving information about the fire, but later 10-12 more fire tenders had to be sent due to the intensity of the fire. Now the fire has been completely doused, officials confirmed.
