Delhi fire: Police arrest factory owner

The owner of a plastic factory here where a major fire killed 17 persons has been arrested, police said on Sunday.

Manoj Jain was taken into custody on Saturday night after a brief interrogation after the police filed an FIR against him, Deputy Commissioner of Police Rajneesh Gupta said.

"We apprehended Jain as the factory was owned by him and a Lalit Goel," he said.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday ordered a thorough probe into the tragedy and announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the next of the kin of the deceased.

As many as 17 people, including 10 women, were burnt to death or asphyxiated and 30 others injured in a fire in a plastic warehouse in west Delhi's Bawana on Saturday evening, officials said.

The Chief Minister said it will be probed how licence was given to the establishment and who gave it and also how the incident happened.

Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Manoj Tiwari also announced a compensation of Rs 50,000 each to the victims of the incident.

Officer Gupta said the fire in Bawana Industrial Area was reported to the Police Control Room around 6.20 p.m., following which 10 fire tenders rushed to the spot. The blaze was doused after three hours.

According to Gupta, crackers were packed in the factory and there was only one exit which led to so many deaths.

The victims were trapped in the basement and the first and second floors when the fire spread from the basement to the floors above, the officer said.

He said seven of the deceased were women aged between 20 and 35 years.

--IANS

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