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Seven dead, eight hurt in West Delhi's Moti Nagar factory collapse

Officials of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) confirmed that the commercial activity was run illegally in the two-storey building

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SDMC had sent a closure notice to this unit on December 2, 2018
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Seven people including a child were killed while eight others were injured after a blast inside a compressor of an illegal factory at Sudarshan Park in West Delhi's Moti Nagar area triggered the collapse of the building on Thursday night. Officials of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) confirmed that the commercial activity was run illegally in the two-storey building.

According to police, the deceased have been identified as Ajay Bahadur(19), Munger (55), Ramphal (45), Rajesh (40), Ajay (25), Sanjay Pratap (18) and Hanshu (6) while the eight injured are Ankit Gupta, Gangesh, Munna, Manju, Surender, Ashok, Rakesh and Bachhai Patel.

"Ankit Gupta is the owner of the illegal factory who is undergoing treatment. A case under sections 287 (Negligent conduct with respect to machinery), 288 (Negligent conduct with respect to pulling down or repairing buildings), 337 (Causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 304 A (Causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered," said a senior police official.

According to Chief Fire Officer (Delhi Fire Services) Atul Garg, the factory was running inside the house and it didn't have a fire NOC. SDMC officials claimed that the nature of work carried out in the factory was being ascertained — whether it was a ceiling-fan or paint-making unit.

"Ironically, we had sent a closure notice to this unit on December 21, and sealing activity was slated to be carried out next week. So, this unit was effectively running illegally," said a senior official from SDMC.

He further said, "The ward in which the collapsed building is located had about 700 units, out of which 670 are now closed, sealed or were found vacant when our team visited during the drive. As regards the remaining 30-odd units, we will seek action against them, and also examine if there was any laxity on the part of any civic department."

According to the residents, the factory door was locked from inside. Next, to the factory, a scrap godown was situated. At the time of the incident, four persons were sleeping in the godown when the wall fell on them.

"We heard a loud blast and rushed to the spot and waited for the dust to settle down and as it settled we saw the entire building in rubbles. We tried to go inside to help the people but the door was locked from inside which we had to break open to save them," said Pawan Pandit, a local resident.

A local resident was also injured while trying to rescue the people.

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