The death toll in the January 19 fire at the plastic factory in Surat’s Udhna reached four, with two more labourers succumbing to burn injuries on Tuesday night, the police said.
The deceased have been identified as Charan Sahu and Mohammed Usman. On January 23, two labourers, Amir Mohammed Ansari, 32, and Niraj Bharti, 22, breathed their last during treatment at New Civil Hospital in surat. The fifth labourer, Lalit Vishwakarma, continues to be in critical condition, the police said.
The police said that they would register an offence under culpable homicide not amounting to murder against Mohammed Memon and Rafik Memon, the owners of the plastic granules manufacturing unit, on Wednesday.
“We have earlier registered an accidental death in the incident, and today we will file a complaint of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against both Memon brothers. We have checked the factory documents, and found that they have no fire safety equipment; not even a certificate from Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB),” S N Desai, Udhna inspector, told the news.
According to the Surat Fire Department, a major fire broke out at RMS Plast, a plastic granules manufacturing unit in Uma Industrial Estate, Sanjaynagar, seriously injuring five labourers. The factory stocks waste plastic materials, which are processed and converted into granules (chips). The fire tenders brought the fire under control after two hours.
Desai said that the fire broke out due to a short circuit that came into contact with the plastic waste materials. The factory manufactures plastic granules/chips from waste plastic materials.
