Delhi: 58-year-old held for running illegal firecracker unit

NEW DELHI: A 58-year-old resident of Punjabi Bagh, who was running an illegal firecracker manufacturing unit in Narela Industrial area, was arrested on Monday night.
With around ten days to go for the Diwali festival, the police officials were patrolling in Narela area when they saw a tempo which was carrying the firecrackers. After questioning the driver, they reached the factory which did not have a fire No Objection Certificate (NOC) or a valid licence.When the police raided it, raw materials worth over Rs 50 lakh along with hundreds of boxes of firecrackers were seized.
“Deepak (30) was transporting these firecrackers from a factory in E-Block, Narela to the godown at F-Block, Bhorgarh. When the vehicle was checked, 45 sealed boxes concealed in plastic bags and containing firecrackers were found,” said Gaurav Sharma, deputy commissioner of police, Outer-North.
A team of police officials subsequently raided a factory in E-Block and arrested Rajkumar who resides in East Punjabi Bagh. The three-storey factory building also had a basement and several machines through which the crackers were being manufactured. A search of the factory was carried out and 125 cartons of firecrackers which were ready to be sold, 10 machines for manufacturing firecrackers, around 400 gunny bags of raw material ‘daana’ and acidic liquid were seized. The police have sealed the factory as well as the godown.
“A total of 669 cartons (each carton contains 24x50=1200 small boxes of firecrackers) and 8,02,800 small boxes of firecrackers, 14 tonne ready material and 10 tonne raw material worth more than Rs 50 lakh have been seized. After the arrest of Rajkumar, the police also raided the godown where over 500 sealed boxes of firecrackers were recovered,” said Sharma.
Rajkumar told the police that since there was a cracker ban in Delhi, he was secretly manufacturing to make monetary gains as people were ready to pay any price to purchase them. He was manufacturing the crackers to sell them in Sonepat and neighbouring districts. The driver—Deepak was told by the factory owner to abandon the vehicle and run away if any police official intercepted him.