Bhoiguda inferno bears striking similarity to 2017 Attapur mishap
HYDERABAD: In February 2017, another fire accident in an air cooler manufacturing unit, on the lines of the New Bhoiguda inferno, which occurred at Attapur, had claimed the lives of six migrant workers. Though the owner of the unit was held responsible for the incident, as he had locked the unit from outside even as the workers slept in it, the case was closed as charges abated as he died of Covid-19.
A special court at LB Nagar closed the case in March, 2021. Immediately after the incident, a case was registered against Pramod Kumar, the owner of the manufacturing unit under charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder at Rajendranagar police station. He was arrested and subsequently a chargesheet was also filed in court.
Accused died of Covid
The case was numbered in 2019 and the trial began during the end of the year 2019. Recording of the witnesses started and during this process, courts were closed due to the Covid pandemic. Meanwhile, Pramod Kumar died of Covid in 2020. Police who got to know about this, submitted his death certificate to the court. Taking into consideration the accused’s death, the court abated charges against him and closed the case in March, 2021.
The victims, all migrant workers belonging to Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, were burnt alive in the incident. Though they slept in the unit, Pramod Kumar used to lock it from outside, fearing theft of material and coolers.Like the New Bhoiguda fire, in this case too, the victims did not have a chance to escape from the fire as there was no other exit except the main entrance, which was locked from outside.