Belagavi sugar factory blast: Four more die, toll rises to 7

Belagavi: With four more injured workers succumbing to burns, the death toll in the sugar factory boiler explosion at Markumbi in Bailhongal taluk, Belagavi district, reached seven on Thursday. Seven of the eight injured in the explosion died while the lone survivor of the blast is in a critical condition, police sources said.

The explosion occurred when the valves of Actuated Valve Control Packages (AVCP) were being replaced at compartment-1 of Inamdar Sugars on Wednesday. Eight people suffered severe burns in the incident.

Akshay Chopade (48) of Rabakavi-Banahatti, Deepak Munavalli (31) of Nesaragi and Sudarshan Banoshi (25) of Khanapur taluk died on Wednesday.

Four others, who were undergoing treatment at KLE Hospital in Belagavi, succumbed to burns on Thursday.

The deceased are: Gurunath Thammannavar (38) of Mareguddi in Bagalkot district, Bharath Sarawadi (27) of Godachinamulki, Manjunath Kajagar (28) of Bailhongal taluk and Manjunath Teradal (31) of Hoolikatti in Athani taluk.

Raghavendra Giriyal (36) of Gilihosur in Gokak taluk is said to be in critical condition.

The family members of the deceased workers have blamed negligence by the factory management for the tragedy. Inamdar Sugars is jointly owned by Vikram Inamdar, son of former minister D B Inamdar, Prabhakar Kore and Vijay Metgud.  

Meanwhile, the police have booked three technical heads of Inamdar Sugars for causing deaths due to negligence.

Tech heads booked

According to Belagavi SP K Ramarajan, cases have been registered against general manager technical head V Subburathinam, general manager engineering head Praveenkumar Taki and Deputy General Manager Process S Vinodkumar for failing to take precautionary measures.

“During the preliminary investigations, it came to the fore that the three technical heads did not take precautionary measures, which led to the boiling sugarcane juice spilling on the employees while replacing the valves on the fourth storey in the factory. SOPs have to be implemented and followed by the factory. Management, which includes its directors if found violating SOPs, would be booked,” he said.

The family members of deceased worker Manjunath Kajgar, along with members of Raitha Sangha, keeping the body of the worker, protested at Chennamma Circle in Bailhongal on Thursday, demanding a compensation of Rs 1 crore each to the kin of the deceased workers.

They blamed the negligence of the factory owners and the management for the death of the workers.

They expressed anguish against the owners and the management for not visiting the families of the deceased workers to express their condolences.

The agitators gheraoed the manager of the factory Ravindra Pattanashetty, when he arrived at the protest site. The manager said the factory management has decided to pay a compensation of Rs 15 lakh each to the families of the victims.

But the agitators were in no mood to relent. They demanded that the victims’ families be paid a relief of Rs 1 crore. The Raitha Sangha called off the protest when the manager announced that an ex gratia of Rs 20 lakh would be paid to the kin of deceased workers.