New Delhi, April 29 (IANS) The bodies of 10 workers killed in a massive fire at a shoe factory in west Delhi’s Peeragarhi industrial area have been identified, police said Friday, adding the factory owner and manager have been arrested.
‘Ten people – Rajkumar, Bittoo, Manoj, Ajay, Ravi, Mohammad Faizad, Mohammad Sattar, Sunil, Chandrashekhar and Anil – were missing Thursday. We have identified their bodies and sent them for post-mortem. Apart from this, no more dead bodies have been recovered and no more people are missing,’ said Deputy Commissioner of Police V. Renganathan.
‘Narender Singla, the owner and Subhash Khullar, the manager were arrested early in the morning today (Friday),’ he added. A case of negligence was registered against them Thursday.
Around 22 people were working in the three-storey building, whose door was said to be locked when the fire broke out. ‘The rest of them escaped,’ said Renganathan.
Most of the workers were migrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Peeragarhi is a residential-cum-industrial area, with several factories and also some residential houses.
The fire at the factory in Udyog Nagar in Peeragarhi broke out at 7.10 p.m. Wednesday and took almost 12 hours to be extinguished.
According to fire officials, the factory had not obtained a No-objection Certificate (NOC).
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit Thursday directed Deputy Commissioner G.S. Meena to conduct an enquiry into the incident and submit his report within 15 days.
‘There were clear violations of fire norms, there was no scope for escape. But the exact cause of fire will be established only after the fire is completely doused and debris cleared,’ Meena said Friday.
