Bawana blaze: Delhi Court junks accused’s plea

Lalit Goyal, an alleged co-accused of the fire-cracker storage factory in Bawana where 17 people were burnt alive in a deadly blaze, was refused anticipatory bail by a Delhi court on Thursday.

Additional Sessions Judge Sukhvinder Kaur rejected the plea holding that the allegations were serious in nature. “The allegations against the accused (Goyal) are serious in nature and matter is at the initial stage of investigation. 17 persons died in the incident. Given the facts and circumstances, I do not find it a case for grant of anticipatory bail to Goyal at this stage. Hence the application is dismissed,” the judge said in his order.

Appearing for Goyal, his counsel submitted that he was just a worker in the factory and was not named in the FIR. He was not present at the site during the time of the incident.

However, this was opposed by the Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) Shiv Kumar and advocate Rishipal Singh appearing for one the victims, Soni, who was charred to death along with her unborn child. Kumar contended that the statements of two injured victims had been recorded before a magistrate in which they have stated that Goyal was a partner in the factory.

Following this, the court rejected the anticipatory bail application of the accused. A Delhi court had on Wednesday sent Manoj Jain, owner of the cracker factory to five days of police custody. It was yesterday that the police informed the court about Goyal and his involvement in the incident.