The Manpada police arrested Malay Mehta on Friday and presented him in Kalyan Court on Saturday afternoon. The S A Pathan, First Class, Judicial Magistrate, Kalyan, granted police custody until May 29. The police detained his mother, Malti Mehta, on Friday and released her after questioning. Samrat Thakkar, the lawyer of Malay Mehta, argued in court that Malay Mehta could have been killed in the incident if he had reached 45 minutes earlier at the Amudan Chemical Private Limited company.
Adv. Akash Bhoinwad moved the application (Intervener) on behalf of those who suffered injuries in a boiler blast in Dombivli Phase 2. Bhoinwad argued in court at this stage, that there was a need for maximum police custody as the heinous crime was committed which resulted in the death of several persons and injuries to many. The Police machinery should investigate the scene of the blast, find out the nature of the chemical process involved and whether there was proper supervision or not and whether maintenance work was done regularly. To find out all the details it was necessary to have the accused in police custody, he observed.
The counsel put the defense before the court that before the incident, not a single complaint was received for the last many years from any concerned authority. The audit of the company has been conducted earlier. The company was registered with the registrar of companies. ``The temperature of the boiler was normal, but due to heavy heat, the temperature of boiler might have been exceeded and the blast took place", he reasoned.
The public prosecutor said several details relating to the factory need to be gathered. It needs to be ascertained if the management had permission to produce the chemicals which were manufactured in the factory and whether maintenance was carried out properly.
Hence custodial interrogation of the accused was justified for the investigation. The Manpada police sought police custody for 14 days, but the court granted five days of police custody for further investigation.
