3 arrested for death of workers at glass item manufacturing company in Pune

Four workers died and three were left injured when wooden boxes stacked with heavy glass panes inside a container truck fell over them while being unloaded at a India Glass Solutions Company on Sunday afternoon.

The deceased have been identified as Amit Shivshankar Kumar (27), Vikas Sarju Prasad Gautam (23), Dharmendra Satyapal Kumar (40) and Pavan Ramchandra Kumar (44), all natives of Uttar Pradesh who were residing in the Yewalewadi area.

Police said the deceased, along with a few more workers, were unloading huge boxes filled with glass panes from a container truck at the company premises. There were about ten boxes of glass panes, each weighing about 2.5 tonnes and the workers unloaded four boxes from the container. But then a safety belt on the boxes broke down while unloading and the heavy glass panes fell over the workers. The impact was such that four workers were crushed to death under the heavy glass panes in the container.

Prima-facie investigation by the police revealed that the workers died due to the alleged negligence and lack of essential safety measures.

An FIR was lodged against five people, including the company partners Hussain Pithawala, Hatim Motorwala and the truck driver Rasage, under Sections 105, 125 (a), 125 (b), 3 (5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

Police arrested Pithawala, Motorwala and Rasage and produced them before the Cantonment court in Wanavdi on Monday.

Police sought the custody of the accused for seven days for further investigation.

The defence lawyers representing the accused said the glass panes came from Malaysia to Mumbai and from there to Pune by the container truck. Arguing that there was no negligence on the part of the accused and that the fault lay with the packager, the defence lawyers said the incident occurred as the safety belt could not bear the weight of the box carrying glass panes. The court then sent the accused to judicial custody.