Tiruchy: The Crime branch CID police have arrested five officials of the Vetrivel Exposives factory and are on the lookout for its managing director in connection with the massive explosion that took place on its premises on Thursday at T. Murungapatti village near Tiruchy. The explosion claimed 19 lives and caused injuries to more than 15 persons.
Though local police arrested all five persons – the director of the factory, Prakasam, production manager Rajagopal, manager Raja Manikandan, HR manager Ganesh and his deputy Venkatapathy soon after the incident, and officially handed them over to CB-CID police on Friday, their arrests are yet to be announced officially.
The CB-CID police sources said on Saturday that they were still searching for Vijay Kannan, managing director of the unit, who is said to be absconding. They are now enquiring with family members of the deceased to confirm and establish the identity of the deceased, sources added.
Meanwhile, Dr Ashok Kumar Yadav, Joint Chief Controller of Explosives, South Circle, Chennai, announced that the license granted to the factory, has been canceled.
The Tiruchy district collector K.S. Palanisamy appointed the district revenue officer K.Tharpagaraj as the inquiry officer to probe into the tragic incident on behalf of the district administration.
Villagers of T Murungapatti, Naganallur and Koppampatti continued to block the Thuraiyur-Salem highway for the third day today, placing trees and boulders.
They demanded adequate compensation, a government job for a member of each deceased family, permanent closure of all explosives units, in and around Thuraiyur. Later in the evening police lathi charged the agitators at Naganallur to disperse the crowd.
Bus services between Thuraiyur and Salem was totally cut off for the third day today. To avoid fresh trouble, the district administration has ordered the closure of Tasmac-run retail wine shops located in and around T. Murungapatti village for a few days from Sunday, official sources told Deccan Chronicle.
