Incense factory goes up in smoke

December 14, 2011

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Bangalore, December 14: Little did those who moved into the new building on 12th cross in Kadirenahalli, South Bangalore know they were bang next to a ticking bomb. On Tuesday morning, when fire destroyed chemicals and other raw material used to manufacture incense sticks at Balaji Agarbathi Pvt Ltd, residents realized the folly of having a factory in a residential area.

It took 11 hours and 19 fire tenders making multiple trips to bring the fire under control. Fortunately, there were no casualties, but the three-storey factory was completely gutted and the loss is yet to be calculated. Fire service officers said the building neither had fire-fighting equipment nor a No-Objection Certificate from the department.

A group of cooks who came to cater for a function in a house opposite the factory sounded the first alarm at 4.30am. One of them saw fumes coming out of the ground floor but before they could figure out what was going on, the fire engulfed the building.

Four vehicles from the Banashankari fire station sped to the spot. However, they realized that four fire tenders wouldn't be enough to douse the fire. Additional equipment and personnel were summoned and by 7am, 19 fire tenders were on the job. The fire tenders had to make multiple trips to Jayanagar to get water as the building didn't have enough saved for an emergency.

Neighbours told mediapersons they had complained many times about the factory. "There was a stink of chemicals from the factory and we were having health problems due to it. This fire is our worst fears come true," said V Muniraju, owner of the building opposite the factory.

Around 60 people work in the factory. "We left the factory last night around 8.30pm. This morning, I was told by a colleague that our factory was on fire," said a worker. Next to the factory is a hostel which has about 20 working women, and opposite it as well behind it are two three-storyed building with people staying there. The building to the right is just a metre away and its doors open towards the burning building. Fortunately, that building was not occupied.

Firefighter removed at least 20 drums of inflammable chemicals from the burning building. They said the primary chemical found was diethyl phthalate, which on burning produces toxic gases. Also, they found other colouring agents and raw material for making incense sticks.

The reason for the fire is not known, according to people in the area there was welding work going on the morning that might have led to the fir. However, the preliminary investigation points towards a short circuit. DCP Sonia Narang told TOI that the building owner did not have satisfactory answers to police questions about the fire safety audit. Police said a case of negligence has been filed against the factory owners Balaji and Bhaskar. The owners refused to comment on the incident.

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News Network
May 12,2020

May 12: A Madhya Pradesh Police sub-inspector was fined Rs 5,000 after he performed a daredevil act of balancing himself on two moving cars, copying the famous stunt from Ajay Devgn-starrer 'Singham'.

Manoj Yadav, the in-charge of Narsinghgarh police post in Damoh district, was also warned against any such daredevilry in future, police sources said on Monday.

Sporting shades as the hero of the cop drama film and wearing his police uniform, Yadav got the entire episode video-graphed, they said.

As the video of the stunt went viral on social media, senior police officials took serious note of it as it will send wrong signals to youngsters, the sources said.

Inspector General, Sagar range, Anil Sharma directed Damoh Superintendent of Police Hemant Chauhan to probe the matter.

After an investigation, Chauhan imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on the sub-inspector and warned him not to repeat such mistakes.

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News Network
July 12,2020

Tamil Nadu, Jul 12: An alleged attempt by a 19-year-old man to "open a branch of the State Bank of India" at Panruti near Tamil Nadu was scuttled and he was arrested for forgery, police said on Saturday.

The man, son of retired SBI employees, had readied fake seals and challans of the public sector lender, and had other paraphernalia like a cash counting machine needed "to run a bank branch," on an upper floor of his residence at Panruti, about 25 km from Tamil Nadu.

He had not, however, put up any signboard. The SBI Panruti branch manager lodged a complaint with police seeking action following a tip-off by a customer that the man was "opening an SBI branch and has challans as well."

A printer who printed the challans and another who had made fake seals were held for similar offences and abetment.

They were produced before a magistrate court and enlarged on bail.

Asked if the man had cheated people by soliciting deposits or facilitating loans, Panruti police inspector K Ambethkar said, "no..we have not received any such complaint so far."

The man's late father had worked for SBI and his mother had retired from the same bank some time back, he said.

To a question, the police inspector said the man's mother, who has mobility issues, and another woman a relative living in the same house had no clue about his "idea."

Investigations revealed that he aspired to work for a bank and since he had closely watched banking operations for long he was "very knowledgeable" about it.

On the suspected motive, he said several of his replies were incomprehensible, childish, and strange notwithstanding his excellent understanding of the banking processes.

"He even calmly told us that he awaited approval from Mumbai to open the (SBI) branch and that he was about to put up a signboard," the inspector said, adding that the man had tried unsuccessfully to get employment on compassionate grounds in the SBI following the death of his father in harness.

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News Network
June 10,2020

Jun 10: In a suspected case of honor killing in Telangana, a 20-year old woman was allegedly smothered to death by her parents for being in love with a man from another caste, becoming pregnant and refusing to undergo an abortion, police said on Tuesday.

The parents killed their daughter using a pillow while she was asleep in the early hours of June 7 in their house in Kalukuntla in Jogulamba-Gadwal district and sought to project it as natural death, claiming she died of a heart attack.

However, following specific information and suspicion raised by the village secretary over the death of the woman, a college student, a probe was launched and the couple arrested on charges of murder under Indian Penal Code section 302 after post-mortem, police said.

The parents decided to kill the woman, the youngest of their three daughters, a day after she was found pregnant and refused to undergo an abortion, police said.

The woman had fallen in love with the man while pursuing her degree course in Kurnool district in neighboring Andhra Pradesh and informed her parents about it after she was found pregnant during an examination by a doctor. Her parents feared that their daughter may elope with her lover and brought pressure on her to go for abortion.

Though initially, she agreed, later she declined, following which they killed her and told everyone that their daughter died of heart attack, the police official said. When a police team went to their house and insisted on a post-mortem after noticing some marks on her body indicating a struggle, the parents tried to stop it, saying there was no need.

Later, police shifted the body to a hospital where a post-mortem revealed the woman was "throttled to death". Her parents during interrogation confessed to killing their daughter, the official said, adding they were arrested.

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