A day after two explosions in Ludhiana, DC marks magisterial probes

In a separate incident Thursday, at least ten persons including five children suffered burn injuries after “illegally stored” potash in a house in Indira Colony of the city exploded.

The house belonged to Usman Khan, who police said makes effigies of “Ravana” on Dussehra and had “illegally stored” potash and other firecrackers in the house, leading to the tragedy.

Ludhiana deputy commissioner Himanshu Jain said that magisterial probes have been marked in both the incidents. “The local sub-divisional magistrates (SDMs) will conduct the probe and submit detailed reports,” said Jain.

Meanwhile, in the Verka milk plant blast case, the MILKED administration has announced ex-gratia and a government job for the family of the deceased employee Kunal Jain, 43, who died on the spot.

Verka milk plant Ludhiana general manager Daljit Singh said: “The family will receive Rs 50 lakh which includes ex-gratia, EPF and other monetary benefits for the family as per government policy. Also, one family member will get a job in MILKFED. We will ensure that the family gets all their due rights as per government service rules.”

Jain was a technician with expertise in handling boiler unit in the plant’s milk powder manufacturing unit where the blast took place late on Wednesday. The family had claimed that Jain had already completed his day shift on Wednesday but he was called again for duty late night to supervise a “trial run” of the boiler. However, there was a blast in the air heater of the boiler and it exploded, killing Jain and injuring his five colleagues.

In the potash blast case of Indira Nagar, the police have registered an FIR against house owner Usman Khan, 54, under the sections 125, 125 (AB) of BNS and 3, 5 of the Explosives Act at division number 2 police station.

The FIR has been registered on the complaint of Nek Chand who said in his statement that Usman had stored firecrackers and other explosive materials in his house as he used to handcraft effigies of Ravana in festive season. He added that on Thursday around noon, there was a powerful explosion in Usman’s house and the building caught fire. He added that several men, women and children including Usman’s own family members were severely injured in the incident. He further said that the incident happened due to Usman’s negligence and he stored explosives in the house without any permit or license.