Police arrested five people including the owner of an iron casting unit at Pangram under Udharband police station in Cachar district on Sunday. Police said on Tuesday they were arrested for allegedly failing to take adequate security measures at the factory. Four workers were killed and several others were injured in the explosion on Sunday.
Factory owner Rakesh Kumar Surana was arrested in Guwahati on Monday, July 27. He was later taken to Udharband police station in Cachar for questioning. Police said a case has been registered against him for gross negligence and failure to maintain adequate safety measures for workers at the factory. Four others, including the factory manager who was arrested the previous day, were formally arrested on Monday.
The accident took place in an iron smelter operated from a square in Pangram on Sunday. The chief minister’s office said the names of the four dead workers were Kiran Munda, Appu Barek, Shyamalal Gaur and Sagar Nath. After preliminary investigation into the accident, investigators suspect that the blast was caused by gas leakage from an LPG cylinder while smelting iron in the factory.
A team of forensic experts will visit the factory to determine the exact cause of the blast, police said. Meanwhile, the state Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sharma expressed deep grief over the incident and announced Rs 5 lakh to the families of each of the deceased workers from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.