Dewas / Harda
The bodies of 21 people killed in an illegal cracker warehouse near Deesa in Banaskantha district of Gujarat were sent to their villages in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday morning. The dead include five children, who were residents of Sandalpur and Handia villages of Dewas and Harda districts of Madhya Pradesh.
The explosion occurred in the warehouse of Deepak Traders, who did not have a valid license to keep firecrackers. Chandra Singh Nayak, who works in a plastic factory in Dholka, Ahmedabad, lost his daughter, son -in -law, grandson Radha (3), Abhishek (10) and two other members of the family of son -in -law in this tragedy. Nayak said, “My daughter and son -in -law recently started work here, while my mother -in -law was already working. Among the dead were ten Sandalpur and eleven Handia.”
The survived Rajesh Nayak said that the explosion occurred at around 8:45 am when the workers had reached work. He lost his aunt, younger brother and three children.
Inspector VG Prajapati of Deesa Rural Police Station said, “Ten ambulances carrying bodies, two coffins in each, have left for villages with police vehicles.”
8 bodies of Harda, 8 bodies of Harda district of Harda are from Harda’s family and 10 are from Dewas district. Two bodies are more burnt, for which DNA test will be done for identification. It is believed that they belong to Harda. The death of 21 laborers was revealed in the first accident.
All the bodies being brought MP through ambulance are undergoing treatment for 8 laborers. The condition of 3 of these is critical. The contractor and a member of the Harda family is missing. Minister Nagar Singh has also gone to Gujarat along with the police-administration team to take the dead body.
On Wednesday morning, he said that the bodies of 10 laborers of Dewas have been sent to his ancestral village. The remaining bodies will also be sent after the postmortem. The ambulance and administrative officials who have taken out the dead bodies have overtaken Godhra.
Heavy traffic on the way, the dead bodies will reach late night, however, it is being said that due to heavy traffic, the bodies will be able to reach the MP till late tonight. The family said that in such a situation the funeral will not be performed after sunset.
There is no facility to keep so many bodies in the ice box simultaneously in Dewas district, the last rites on the Narmada coast in Nemawar tomorrow. Therefore all the bodies will be kept in the Morchuri of Indore MY Hospital. The bodies will be brought to Sandalpur from Indore on Thursday morning. The funeral will be performed on the Narmada coast in Nemawar.
Madhya Pradesh Minister Nagar Singh Chauhan and Gujarat Industries Minister Balwant Singh Rajput reached Deesa. Chauhan said, “This is a very sad incident. Both governments are giving relief to the families of the victims. The culprits will not be spared.” After discussing with Banaskantha Collector Mihir Patel, he assured strict action.
The explosion was so strong that the warehouse was destroyed and the body parts were scattered 200-300 meters away. Collector Patel said that the families of some workers living in the campus died in the debris of the slab.
SDRF engaged in relief and rescue operations
Deesa’s sub-divisional magistrate Neha Panchal said, “The license of the warehouse was over on 31 December and was not renewed due to flaws. It was only for storage, but illegal construction was also being done.”
The police arrested the warehouse owner Deepak Mohanani and his father Khubchand Mohanani on Tuesday night. Rajesh Nayak told that about two dozen people were working in the warehouse. This tragedy proved to be painful for the laborers of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, which destroyed many families.