3 owners booked in Ludhiana factory collapse case

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, August 13

In a yesterday’s factory collapse incident, the Moti Nagar police registered a case against the owners of RT Woollen Mill.

The accused have been identified as Tara Chand and his sons Deepak Singal and Amit Singal of Inder Nagar.

Ten persons had suffered injuries as debris fell on them. The city has witnessed incidents of factory collapse in the past and the police had registered cases against the owners but there is hardly any case in which the police managed to achieve conviction of the accused.

On November 20, 2017, five-storeyed factory Amarson Polymers at the Suffian chowk had collapsed killing 16 persons, including nine firefighters. The police had initially registered a case of culpable homicide under Section 304, IPC, but later during probe, the case was converted to Section 304-A, IPC, and owner Inderjit Singh Gola had got bail. The case is pending in the court.

On April 5, 2021, an under-construction building at Baba Mukand Singh Nagar had collapsed killing four workers. The police had then registered a case of culpable homicide against factory owner Jaswinder Singh and contractor Mohammad Harun. They were arrested. Jaswinder had go bail, while Harun’s bail was dismissed. The case is pending in the court.

On October 11, 2018, four workers had died of asphyxia after a fire broke out at a four-storeyed hosiery unit, Kalra Knitwear, in Street No 1 of Kalyan Nagar near Kamla Lohtia SD College in Ludhiana. The police had booked the unit owner, Sumit Kalra, for culpable homicide not amounting to murder (Section 304 of the IPC) as the unit was found locked from outside, giving the labourers no option to escape. The accused were arrested in the case and they later got bail. Presently case is pending in the court and next hearing is August 16.