Four labourers suffocate to death in a hosiery factory in Punjab’s Ludhiana district. The incident happened in the Bajwa Nagar, a clothes factory area of Ludhiana. Two of them are from Madhepura District, Bihar.
A sudden fire broke out in the wee hours when these four workers, in their night shift, were at work and the main gate was locked. It is said that the gate was closed from outside and there was no second exit, so those workers were stuck inside and died of suffocation.
Two of the workers died in the incident are from Murliganj Block, Madhepura, Bihar. All four deceased have been identified as Dhananjay Pandey 35, Satyaprakash 38, Mohammad Rabban 21, and Azad Mohammad 18 both unmarried. Azad and Rabban were cousins and went to Ludhiana for the first time to work, outside their state Bihar.
The deceased family members of Azad and Rabban are in deep shock and said that Azad had never worked and it was his maiden chance of being the bread earner and both have left on 2nd of October to Ludhiana. Rabban’s father Mohammad Jabbar is a daily wage worker and works back at Murliganj block.
It is also said that factory owner Sumit Kalra has locked the gate from outside and left. The police have lodged an FIR against Kalra for gross negligence under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder).
Factory workers have alleged of working in inhumane conditions in the factories. they have also said that it is similar in all the factories in the area and factory owners locking the gate from outside during the night has been a regular practice over the period of time.
other factory workers are in deep shock and feeling unsafe after the incident. There is fear among the workers working in the night shift especially and they are refusing to work in the night shifts.
