Poisonous gas kills factory worker; no responsibility fixed

A 21-year-old worker was killed while another fell sick after the leakage of a poisonous gas in Kudos Chem Industry, situated near Kuranwala on the Barwala road here on Tuesday evening. While the factory managers remained mum on the incident, the police too seemed completing mere formalities as only inquest proceedings were initiated.

As per reports, the factory manufactures caffeine used in medicines and colas after mixture of several chemicals. Electrician Baljinder Singh and helper Kulwinder Singh (who died) became victims of the gas around 4.30 pm on Tuesday. Both of them were rushed to Sukhmani Hospital from where Kulwinder was shifted to GMCH-32, Chandigarh. Kulwinder died in the hospital after four hours; he was from Hoshiarpur and was residing on rent in Bhagat Singh Nagar Colony.

The deceased's father, uncle and brother reached Dera Bassi to take the body while two factory managers remained in the hospital during post-mortem at Dera Bassi. The kin were not aware about the cause of the incident, while both factory managers also remained reluctant to disclose it.

However, police investigation officer Shaam Singh said a case under CrPC section 174 had been registered. Asked whether he had visited the spot in the factory, or probed if any small reactor had burst, he feigned ignorance: "The police will visit the spot after completing post-mortem formalities."

But Dera Bassi SHO Gurwant Singh claimed the police had visited the spot before filing the case and action would be taken after the autopsy report.