Less than 12 hours after a cook employed to prepare food for the State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) troops deployed in Vasai was seriously injured in a freak fire mishap, sleuths of the Mira Bhayandar-Vasai Virar (MBVV) police commissionerate raided a shop, which was found to be selling regulators of cooking gas cylinders of questionable quality and sans any certification or authorization for selling such products.
According to the police, the incident was reported from the Bhuigaon area of Dongri, in Vasai, where the SRPF personnel have been accommodated by the MBVV officials.
As per his daily chore, the cook identified as-Anand Jagannath Ugwekar (51) tried to light the LPG-fuelled burner at around 9:30 am on Sunday, however, the regulator of the cylinder all of a sudden caught fire. Ugwekar who suffered serious burn injuries on both his hands and legs was rushed to a nearby hospital, where his condition is now said to be stable. It is suspected that the mishaps occurred as the regulator was of inferior quality.
Investigations revealed that the regulator was recently purchased from a shop located in Nirmal Bazaar and the shopkeeper had sourced it from an agency named Nirnal Enterprise. The police immediately swooped down on the agency and found 40 similar yellow coloured regulators. The agency owner has failed to provide documents like quality certificate or authenticating his authority to sell regulators in the open market.
The police seized the regulators and booked the shopkeeper identified as-Mahendrasingh Rajput under section 338 of the IPC for causing grievous injuries by doing an act so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life, or the personal safety of others and relevant sections of the Gas Cylinder Rules-1981.
Now, Cops are identifying other traders who had been supplied the gas regulators in bulk. In accordance with the Essential Commodities Act, empty or filled gas cylinders as well as regulators were not to be sold in the open market.
