Murugesan Case

TestMadurai: After being on the run for four days, the owner of Om Sakthi Crackers factory was finally arrested in Madurai today. On Wednesday, a major fire had broken out in the factory located in Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu, claiming 38 lives and injuring 60 others.

The owner, Murugesan, is accused number one in the case. Charges against him include culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Ten teams had been formed by the police to nab him. They had, till now, arrested 12 others in the case including three contractors, a chemical mixer and the factory lessee Paul Pandi, who according to the police is accused number two in the case.

Mr Murugesan, who held the licence to run the factory, had leased it to Mr Pandi, which was illegal. Cases have been registered against the lease holders and owner under various sections of IPC and Explosives Act.

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2:11 Sivakasi fire tragedy: 38 dead, six arrested, search on for factory owner More than 40 violations of safety norms like over-crowding, wrong mixing of chemicals and overstocking, have allegedly been discovered. The state Explosives Department had suspended the factory's licence on Tuesday. The factory should not have been running operations on Wednesday, the day of the fire.

Most of those killed were relatives of workers and others standing anxiously outside the factory and the fire raged. They were hit by stone splinters and even by the firecrackers called "rockets". Some of these bystanders fell ill from the strong fumes.

Over 300 workers were believed