4 persons killed in pharma factory blast in Lalru

MOHALI: A fortnight after a factory collapsed in Jalandhar resulting in death of 23 persons, four persons were killed and 15 injured in a blast in a chemical reactor of a leading pharmaceutical company, Dashmesh Medicare Pvt Ltd, at Basouli village in Lalru on Monday.
The Mohali district police have registered a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against managing director (MD) of the company, N R Mujaan, chairman, S R Mehta, manager Kamal Mehta and other senior officials .
Mohali deputy commissioner Varun Rozal has also marked an inquiry to find out lapses on the part of management of the company.
The 15 injured were taken to Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, Chandigarh, PGI and the civil hospital in Mohali. The district administration has announced a compensation of Rs 1 lakh to family members of each the deceased and Rs 50,000 to the injured persons.
The incident took place around 7.30am. The night shift had changed at 6am. The fire was brought under control by two dozen fire tenders after two-and-a-half hours. Mohali DC Varun Rozal, SSP G P S Bhullar, Derabassi MLA M L Sharma, and other senior administrative officials rushed to the spot on getting to know about the incident.
The injured included Rajkumar Verma, Ashok Malik, Sucha Singh, Saravjeet Singh, Sobindoo, Chote Ram, Santosh Kumar, Sunil Kumar and Mahender Awasthi.
Sudesh Yadav, one of the factory employees said, "I heard a huge noise due to the explosion." Yadav joined his duty in the morning shift around 7am.
Balkar Singh, sarpanch of Basuli village, said, "The noise of the explosion could be heard in an area of around 8km from the unit. More than 100 villagers rushed to the spot to help in the rescue work."