Pune: Police on Monday arrested two partners of a glass factory and a truck driver on the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, a day after four workers were killed and two others were seriously injured when two large boxes containing sheets of glass fell on them at Yewalewadi near Kondhwa. A court in Wanowrie sent the factory partners Hussain Pithawala (38) and Hatim Motorwala (36), both from Yewalewadi, and driver Raju Rasge (30), a resident of Kalamboli in Panvel, to magisterial custody for 14 days. The trio were later sent to the Yerawada jail.
Judicial magistrate first class A A Kulkarni said the physical presence of the accused with the police was not essential because nothing was to be recovered from the three. "The grounds mentioned in the remand report are technical in nature." Inspector (crime) Mansing Patil told TOI that the trio were arrested after investigations established that they had not taken safety and security measures like providing superior quality gumboots, helmets, hand gloves, and a machine for offloading large boxes of glass.
The incident occurred because the trio had risked the 15 workers' lives to save money instead of hiring a crane operator, he said. Earlier, assistant police inspector Rakesh Jadhav produced the three before the magisterial court and filed a remand report seeking that they be sent to police custody for seven days. Assistant public prosecutor Amrapali Kasture told the court that the questioning of the trio was essen.
