Family members of more than half-a-dozen victims of Tuesday’s firecracker factory explosion in Gujarat’s Banaskantha district sat in protest outside the Deesa Civil Hospital on Wednesday (April 2, 2025), alleging that the bodies of their loved ones had been handed over to the authorities of the Madhya Pradesh government without their consent.
The explosion at the firecracker factory killed at least 21 people, most of them hailing from Madhya Pradesh.
Most family members The Hindu spoke to outside the hospital said they started arriving from Madhya Pradesh around Tuesday midnight to early morning on Wednesday, but were not allowed to see the bodies.
Chander Singh Nayak, father of 23-year-old victim Sunita, wrote a petition to the Chief Minister of Gujarat, saying that he and family members of many other victims, were not given a chance to the see the remains of their loved ones despite informing the district authorities that they were on their way from Madhya Pradesh to identify them. He added that they had not been given copies of the post-mortem reports either.
Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani joined the family members from Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday afternoon at the Deesa Civil Hospital, calling the incident “bigger than Hathras” [2020 gang-rape in U.P.], alleging that there was a conspiracy to “hide the bodies” so that a fair probe could be skirted.
Kin arrived late, says Minister
However, Madhya Pradesh Cabinet Minister Nagar Singh Chouhan, who is coordinating the return of the bodies, denied claims that the families were not allowed to identify the body, adding that some people were “politicising” the issue. He said families of some victims had arrived late so they could not see the bodies.
Mr. Nagar told The Hindu that the bodies of victims from Dewas district were dispatched around 10 a.m. on Wednesday, and those from Harda district were sent around 12.30 p.m. He said the bodies should reach their destinations in Madhya Pradesh by around 11 p.m. on Wednesday.
Factory owner and son held
In a statement issued on Wednesday morning, the local Crime Branch of the Gujarat Police said it had registered an FIR against the owner of the factory and had arrested him along with his son. They have been identified as Khubchandbhai Renmul Mohanani and Deepakbhai Khubchandbhai Mohanani respectively. The factory was being run in a building inside the premises of the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation.
The police held a press conference and said the FIR was registered under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Explosives Substances Act, on a complaint from the local revenue officer. They added that an SIT had been formed. Several teams of experts had been roped in for the probe, and they were looking for the other accused in places such as Tamil Nadu, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and Rajasthan, the police said.
Most of the victims of the explosion had arrived from Madhya Pradesh just a couple of days ago to earn a living. “We worked at the factory for one day – on Monday – and on Tuesday morning within an hour of starting work, the explosion took place,” 22-year-old Rajesh Nayak, a survivor of the explosion said.
Dulichand Kamal, 27, brother of Lakhan Nayak, another victim of the explosion, told The Hindu, “When we reached the hospital today [Wednesday] morning, all family members were taken to a room, some police officials locked the doors from inside and asked us to sign a list with the names of the deceased. We all refused because we had not seen their remains or identified them.”
Lakhan Nayak was married to Sunita, Chander Singh’s daughter. Lakhan’s siblings, two sisters and a brother – all minors – were also among those killed in the explosion. Lakhan’s paternal aunt Shanti Panwar said: “The contractors showed them the greed for money, and they all went.” Rajesh Nayak said they were promised ₹500 for every 1,000 firecrackers they made.
At the protest site on the Deesa Civil Hospital premises, Mr. Mevani said, “We have demanded that a fair probe be conducted, compensation be raised on the lines of what was offered to the victims of the Morbi bridge tragedy, and bodies of the victims be handed over to the families for identification.”
In the letter to the Chief Minister, Mr. Chander Singh said neither he nor any of the other family members knew where the bodies were currently being kept. They requested that the bodies be handed over to them so that they can be identified, and their last rites conducted.
Published – April 03, 2025 12:24 am IST
