New Delhi: A day after a massive fire at an illegal manufacturing unit took the lives of 43 innocent labourers in Delhi’s Anaj Mandi area, the Delhi police crime branch unit, on Monday, collected evidence using 3D laser scan technology in order to reconstruct the sequence of incident of fire at the building.
A team from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) also visited the site and collected samples from the four-storey building that housed a number of illegal manufacturing units and had stored flammable raw material such as cardboard boxes, plastic sheets, and Rexine.
This is the second time that the Delhi police is using the 3D laser scan technology for investigation. The police had used the same technology to probe the massive fire in February in Karol Bagh’s Hotel Arpit Palace that killed 17 people.
Meanwhile, on Monday, a Delhi court sent the property owner, Rehan, and manager of the building, Furqan, to 14 days’ police custody.
Metropolitan magistrate Manoj Kumar sent Rehan and Furqan to custody after the police had sought 14-day custodial interrogation for them.
On Sunday, the police had arrested Rehan and Furqan after registering a case under Sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 285 (negligent conduct with respect to fire) of the IPC at the Sadar Bazar police station. The case was later transferred to the crime branch.
The Delhi government, on Sunday, had also ordered a magisterial probe into the tragedy—the worst fire accident in the national capital since the 1997 Uphaar Cinema blaze that claimed 59 lives—and sought a report within seven days.
It took over 150 fire fighters nearly five hours to douse the blaze.
As many as 63 people were pulled out of the building. While 43, including one minor, died, 16 were injured. Two fire department personnel were hurt while carrying out rescue work, officials said. All the deceased were migrant labourers hailing from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
The police and fire department officials said that many of the fatalities took place owing to suffocation as the people were sleeping when the fire started at around 5.00 am on Sunday on the second floor of the building that did not have fire safety clearance.
