A day after a major fire broke out at a godown in Bapujinagar where as many as 1,800 barrels of chemicals used for santisiers and paint thinners were illegally stored, the police on Wednesday arrested the owners and their son.
The accused are Sajjanraj, 66, the owner of Rekha Chemical Industries, his wife Kamala Sajjanraj, 60, owner of Rekha Chemicals Corporation, and their son Anil Kumar, 30, who managed the family business. They were arrested from their house in Shankarpuram, said the police.
The couple has two factories in Bommasandra Industrial Area and the licence to run both. “But they did not have the required permission or licence to store chemical barrels in the godown. They had not taken permission from the BBMP, Fire and Emergency Services or from the pollution control board. The site was purchased in the name of Kamala Sajjanraj and the GST is in her name,” said Sanjeev M. Patil, DCP (west).
The accused were supposed to send eight barrels of isopropyl alcohol to Crescent Chemical Industries at Lingarajapuram on Tuesday. “Each barrel had to weigh 85 kg, but one weighed less. An employee, Biju Singh, who sustained injuries in the fire, had called Sajjanraj over the phone to discuss it with him,” said Mr. Patil.
Sajjanraj allegedly asked him to transfer the isopropyl alcohol from another barrel. “But the barrel they used had been exposed to sunlight and was hot. While they were transferring it, the fire broke out due to static charge and spread immediately,” said a senior police official.
The police have recorded the statement of Biju Singh, the prime witness in the case. The probe so far has revealed that Sajjanraj established Rekha Chemicals in 1978. They procured raw material from Mumbai, Kochi, and Chennai, which they used to manufacture paint thinners and sanitisers.
Five buildings damaged
Five buildings were damaged while five cars, a goods carrier, two bikes, and two electricity poles were gutted. A godown storing plastic which was adjacent to the site was also damaged causing the owner losses to the tune of ₹45 lakh. Ayaz, the owner of the adjacent godown, and Shambulinga, the goods vehicle driver, filed complaints, following which two FIRs were filed against the accused.
