Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Thursday said that the government will ensure exemplary punishment to the accused in the illegal firecracker factory case and also in the Mandi hooch tragedy.

Issuing a statement on the explosion in an illegal firecracker factory in Una district after Congress, CPM members expressed concern, Thakur said 36 people had been arrested in the Mandi Hooch tragedy and none of them have been granted bail.

The state government will not spare anyone irrespective of their political affiliations whether its ruling or opposition party.

In the illegal firecracker factory case, the state government had directed the authorities to complete the probe within 7 days and strict action will be taken against them to ensure that such irregularities don’t happen in future, he added.

Thakur stated that six women had died in Bathri area of Tahliwal industrial area of Una district while 14 suffered injuries of 11 of them are in serious condition.

“The owner of the factory where the explosion took place is still at large and a case under section 286, 337, 304A of IPC and Section 9 (C) under the Explosives Act. The owner hadn’t taken permission to run the unit and after inspection, another such unit was found functioning 100 metres away from the spot.

In addition, a SIT was constituted which is led by Sumeda Dwivedi, DIG Northern Range with Vimukt Ranjan, Commandant 1st IRBN Bangarh and SP Una Arjit Sen Thakur as members of the team,” the CM said.
He stated that the SIT had inspected the spot and important physical, documentary and other evidence have been seized from the spot. Bomb disposal squad has also inspected the spot to confirm the cause of the explosion and the type of explosive.

It was found that no safety measures were in place to prevent any fire hazard and the mishap occurred due to negligence on the part of the manager.

The CM said the company, Novatech Engineers which was later merged with Guruji Enterprises, was being run illegally without any permissions. The factory manager Deepak Kumar Rana had been arrested on 23 February and 1,905 kg of gunpowder and 90 liters of paint had been seized besides a car and a laptop.

Meanwhile, Industry minister Bikram Singh said the company M/S Novatech Engineers had taken approval for manufacturing weighbridges and steel RCC under the Land Tenancy and Reforms Act, 1972.

However, it allegedly started illegally manufacturing pop-pop crackers for which it had no permission and a generator was being used to supply power to the unit.

The employer will be directed to pay compensation to the dependents of the deceased under the Employees’ Compensation Act, 1923, he added.

Earlier, the Leader of Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri said if any illegal factory is functioning in the state, it should be in the knowledge of the concerned department as well as Gram Panchayat and local police.

The Novatech Engineers was registered in the state to set up the weighbridges during the Congress rule, he said, while urging to fix responsibility of concerned officials of line departments.