A day after multiple blasts at a firecracker manufacturing unit at V. Viragalur in Ariyalur district claimed 11 lives, police on Tuesday carried out searches at several houses in Anna Nagar, where firecrackers were allegedly being produced illegally.
According to sources, acting on inputs, a police team went to Anna Nagar and brought most of the houses under the scanner. The team detected raw materials being kept for producing fire crackers in six houses. Also, the inmates of the houses possessed some bags of finished crackers. The police subsequently seized five bags of half-finished crackers and three bags of finished crackers. The inmates of the houses were said to be workers of the firecracker manufacturing unit.
Inquiries revealed that the proprietors of the unit reportedly allowed the workers to carry raw materials to their houses. After completing their domestic chores, the workers made the firecrackers and carried the finished and half-finished products to the unit.
Keelapalur police had registered a case under sections 3 and 5 of the Explosive Substances Act and under different sections of the Indian Penal Code including 286 (negligent conduct with respect to explosive substance) and arrested the unit owner, Rajendran, and his son-in-law Arun in connection with the blast,
The investigation into the blast has been entrusted to an officer in the rank of a Deputy Superintendent of Police, Ariyalur, as the incident had resulted in multiple deaths.
Police sources said the investigators would look into various aspects as part of their probe to find out the cause of the blast, negligence, if any, violations of safety protocols, the number of employees engaged at the unit, the explosive substances stocked inside the unit and if they were within the limits, among others. The investigators would also obtain inputs and opinions from explosives expert and scientific assistants.
Inspector General of Police, Central Zone, G. Karthikeyan, told The Hindu that the Ariyalur police had been asked to check all firecracker manufacturers, stockists and explosive dealers to ascertain their legality and whether they were following the stipulated safety norms.
Collector J. Anne Mary Swarna said special committees had been formed to monitor firecracker units, dealers and sales depots in rural and urban areas of the district. If the licensees did not comply with the relevant components of the Explosive Rules 2008, their licence would be revoked.
She handed over cheques of ₹3 lakh each, sanctioned from the Chief Minister’s General Relief Fund, to the family members of those who lost their lives in Monday’s blast at the fire cracker unit.
