Ghaziabad: A 45-year-old contractor has died of injuries sustained in a firecracker explosion at a community centre in Lajpat Nagar, Sahibabad, where workers were making a Ravana effigy for Dussehra. The deceased was identified as Anil Kumar. Workers were placing firecrackers inside the effigy, while many more crackers were stored in the room where it was being made. Kumar’s two sons and two other workers are still being treated for their injuries at Delhi hospitals. Police registered an FIR after a GMC official filed a complaint.On Monday morning, workers were preparing Ravana effigies at the municipal corporation’s community centre near Ramlila Maidan for a Dussehra event on the ground being organised by Ramayan Kala Sangam Samiti. Around 9.30 am, a sudden blast occurred at the centre.The intensity of the blast knocked down parts of the centre’s walls and shattered the doors. The awning of a nearby house was also damaged, while cracks appeared in the walls of three other houses.Teams from the fire department, police and NDRF reached the spot and began rescue operations, rushing the five injured men to a nearby hospital. Anil, his older son Rajat (29) and Raju (35), another worker, were moved to Delhi’s Rajiv Gandhi Hospital. Anil’s younger son Rishabh (25) and the fifth worker, Mahendra (32), are undergoing treatment at Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital.Anil had sustained burn injuries to 80% of his body and succumbed to his injuries on Tuesday morning, police said.“Initial investigation revealed that the firecrackers were stored inside the community centre room while effigy work was going on outside the building. We learnt that the workers were making food on a heater and somehow a fire sparked and the firecrackers burst in a chain reaction,” DCP of (trans-Hindon) Rijul said.GMC’s Prabhat Sharma, tax inspector grade II, has filed a police complaint in the case. Sharma said that firecracker materials had been stored at the centre without GMC’s permission.An FIR has been registered against unknown persons under BNS sections 326(g) (mischief by using fire or an explosive substance with the intent or knowledge that it will likely destroy a building ordinarily used as a place of worship, a human dwelling, or a place for the custody of property), 324(3) (any person who commits mischief by causing damage or destruction to property belonging to the govt or a local authority) and 125 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) and relevant sections of the Explosives Act, 1884.“The injured workers are not in a condition to speak yet. We will take their statements soon when they have recovered more. We are also investigating how the firecrackers were stored in the community centre without permission,” Rijul said.
