GURUGRAM: Over 8,000kg of firecrackers were seized by the chief minister’s flying squad from a godown in Farrukhnagar in a raid that spanned three days. The owner of Jai Mata Pataka, Sanjay Kumar, was booked after he failed to produce papers and permits related to manufacturing and sale of crackers. The Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) has already issued a blanket ban on the sale and use of firecrackers against the backdrop of rising pollution levels. It has, however, allowed the sale of green crackers. The raid by the CM flying squad comes days after six members of a family suffered grievous injuries when firecrackers stored in their house in Gurugram ‘s Nakhrola village exploded and blew the roof off. It also coincided with another search by a CGST team in Palwal, where crackers worth Rs 10 crore were seized. Although police were yet to estimate the worth of the 8,343kg of crackers that were seized from the godown in Farrukhnagar, sources in the department said it would cost around Rs 1 crore. On Wednesday, the CM flying squad received a tipoff that crackers were being sold and stored at a warehouse in Daboda village of Farrukhnagar. Nishant Yadav, the Gurugram deputy commissioner, informed the Farrukhnagar tehsildar and asked him to investigate the allegation. “We reached the spot and found several customers from across NCR buying crackers. The godown, spread across 7 acres, had six rooms, one of which was being used to display the crackers for sale. The five other rooms also had crackers stored in them,” the FIR, lodged by the squad, says. According to the FIR, the store in-charge, Ashok Shukla, was asked about the crackers, but he could not give a satisfactory reply. The owner, Kumar, was called. He, too, failed to produce any proper documents that allowed him to store the crackers. “He could not give any satisfactory reply if these were green crackers. There was no stock register either. Since the godown had no electricity and light was poor, the squad sealed all the rooms in the presence of the duty magistrate on Wednesday. We continued our raid through Thursday and Friday too,” the FIR read. Apart from storing crackers illegally, the godown also lacked fire safety equipment. A case under sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) and 286 (negligent conduct with respect to explosive substance) of the IPC and under relevant provisions of the Explosives Act was registered against the owner of the godown.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/gurugram-8000kg-crackers-seized-in-3-day-raid-at-godown/articleshow/94888767.cms