Hapur blast: Factory was making firecrackers illegally, toll touches 13

MEERUT : Police on Sunday lodged an FIR against the owner and the manager of Roohi Industries, Mohd Dilshad and Mohd Wasim respectively, for manufacturing firecrackers without licence in the Hapur factory that witnessed a blast on Saturday, leaving 13 dead and 20 severely injured. The two were booked under charges of negligence, culpable homicide and other relevant sections of IPC.
The factory, located barely 300 m away from a police post, only had a licence to manufacture electronic toys and small goods.It had almost negligible ventilation and no emergency exit.
Those who witnessed the blast told TOI that they saw bodies flying in the air as the blast was very powerful. Drains were choked with blood and fragments of skin, and those who died were unidentifiable. Several of those injured are critical.
According to locals, over 55-60 people were working in the factory, who hailed from Hapur, Shahjahanpur and Meerut. They worked in shifts, and were hired by the owners to fill "some powder" in packets. “That was gunpowder, used to make firecrackers -especially rockets and bullets that kids shoot from guns. All this was happening under the police's nose as the police station is barely a few hundred metres away from the factory,” said an official of the district administration, who is a part of the investigation team.
The team is ascertaining the reason behind the blast and lapses on the part of the police and the administration.
“We have booked the owner, and four teams have been formed to nab him. The manager has been arrested,” said Hapur additional superintendent of police Sarvesh Mishra. He confirmed that firecrackers were being manufactured in the factory but refused to comment on any lapse on the part of the local intelligence unit.
“There are lapses at various fronts and all the guilty will be punished,” he said, adding that the death toll rose to 13, with one more death being reported from Delhi’s Safdarjung hospital.
At Safdarjung, Musharrat Begum, whose 20-year-old son Talim Saifi is one of the injured in the blast, was inconsolable. “Look at my child. He was one of the most handsome men in the village. I saw his skin peeling off yesterday. Save him,” she wailed.
Talim, from Aabpur village of Hapur, had been working in the factory for the past four years.
Meanwhile, the kin of 23year-old Sonu Kashyap was waiting to hear news from the burns ward. “Sonu’s elder brother Raghubinder died in the blast. I wish my second son is alive,” said his father, Ram Naresh, from Badheri village, Shahjahanpur. Raghubinder is survived by three children.