Nagpur: The death toll in the blast at an explosives manufacturing factory in Maharashtra’s Nagpur district rose to eight on Saturday after another worker succumbed to his injuries at a private hospital. Shraddha Vanraj Patil (22), who was undergoing treatment in Nagpur city, died, Dande Hospital Director Dr Pinak Dande told PTI. Another injured worker Pramod Chavre is undergoing treatment. With this, eight workers, including six women and two men, died in Thursday’s blast.
The blast took place at around 1 pm on Thursday at the factory located in Dhamna Village under Hingna police station area, around 25 km from the city. The nine injured have been admitted to two private hospitals in the city. According to the police, most of the victims were working in the factory’s packaging unit at the time of the blast. Police arrested factory director Jai Shivshankar Khemka (49) and manager Sagar Deshmukh on Friday. They were produced before the first class judicial magistrate of Hingna, who granted them cash bail of Rs 50,000. The director and manager have been booked under sections 286 (negligent conduct with respect to explosive substance), 304 (A) (causing death by rash or negligent act) and 338 (causing grievous hurt by any rash or negligent act) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), police said.