New Delhi - A man running a plastics warehouse in the Indian
capital where 17 people, including 10 women, were killed in a fire,
has been taken into custody, police said Sunday.
Preliminary investigations revealed that Manoj Jain had been running
a repackaging unit in the two-storey building in the Bawana
industrial area in what was registered as a plastics warehouse, Delhi
Police spokesman Dependra Pathak said.
"Delhi Police has registered a case under Indian Penal Code 304, 285
and the Explosives Act and arrested the person who took this place on
rent on January 1 and was doing this work illegally," Pathak said.
The charges are of negligence relating to fire and culpable homicide.
There were at least 20 to 25 workers in the building when the fire
broke out Saturday evening on the ground floor and quickly spread to
the upper floor and basement, fire official GC Mishra said.
The building had only one narrow staircase leading to one exit and
most of the victims died of asphyxiation, while some from burn
injuries.
While some people managed to escaped, two - a man and a woman -
suffered fractures when they jumped from the terrace of the building
to escape the fire, Mishra said.
The Bawana industrial area has small manufacturing and processing
units many of which do not comply with fire safety regulations.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has ordered a probe into the
incident. He also announced assistance of 500,000 rupees (about 7835
dollars) each for families of the dead and 100,000 each for the
injured.