Ahmedabad: Additional sessions judge J I Patel on Thursday denied regular bail to 65-year-old Ramila Dodiya, one of the three main accused in the July firecracker factory blast in Ramol that killed 10 people.In her bail plea, Dodiya maintained innocence and dissociated herself from the unit. She claimed that her son, Mehul, was the proprietor of the unit and held a valid permission and licence, along with the required fire safety certificate.Public prosecutor Sudhir Brahmbhatt opposed the plea, underscoring that Dodiya had been running a firecracker manufacturing unit for a long time in partnership with different persons without any fire safety provisions.The court rejected the bail plea and said that, despite knowing that running such a unit without adopting any safety or precautionary measures would put the workers’ lives in danger, she partnered with a co-accused and continued the business. The investigator pointed out that a similar offence had occurred in 2014, when a blast had taken place in her firecracker manufacturing unit.The court further said, “The investigation is underway against her, her son and a partner. There is a prima facie case and without entering into the merit of the matter, it is not proper to release the accused on bail at this stage.”
