Bawana fire: Delhi High Court issues notice to authorities

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the authorities on a plea seeking CBI probe into the Bawana fire tragedy, where 17 people were charred to death at a cracker factory.

Justice Indermeet Kaur sought the response from the Delhi government, the fire department and the Delhi Police, among other authorities and asked them to file a status report within four weeks from Tuesday.

The court’s direction comes on a plea filed by the husbands of the labourers working at the factory, who met with the accident.

The plea filed through advocate Rishi Pal Singh contended that the probe in the present case has been slow. It stated that no verification of the employees was done in accordance with the provisions of the Delhi Police Act.

It also claimed that besides Manoj Jain, owner of the factory and Lalit Goyal, co-accused, none of the other accused have been arrested despite evidences against them. It also said that appropriate sections and statutes have not been added by the police while registering the case.

The plea sought that the case is transferred to the CBI for further investigation.

“To pass an appropriate writ to the investigating agency to initiate an appropriate proceeding against the officials of the concerned civic agencies i.e.  Fire Department, Labour Department and NDMC who miserably failed to perform their part of duty,” the plea said.

17 people were killed and 2 others were injured when a massive fire had engulfed the cracker factory in Bawana on January 19.