Hikal Ltd officials arrested for illegal dumping of chemical waste that killed six

Surat: The police found in the investigation that over 1 lakh liters of sodium hydrosulphide was dumped in the pit using four tankers prior to recent incident of gas-leakage  in Sachin GIDC, Surat.

The crime-branch has nabbed 3 officials of Mumbai based Hikal Ltd. company and the owner of Bajrang mill in Sachin GIDC.

The police have got the remands of these accused till 17th January. The accused nabbed by the crime-branch are Hikal company EHS head Mansukh Gokalbhai Patel, general manager of supply chain department Abhay Suresh Dandekar, head of crop-protection department Machhindranath Murlidhar Gorhe and Raman Bhalabhai Bariya, owner of Bajrang mill in GIDC and living and Pandesara area.

Hikal is a listed company in the stock market. It is mandatory to install GPS tracking systems in tankers for delivering chemicals through it as per the regulations of Maharashtra Pollution Control Board. However, the company had sent the tanker filled with the chemical without a GPS tracking system.

The chemical samples taken by Gujarat Pollution Control Board from the tanker and the sample of chemical in factory of accused Raman Bariya have matched, as per report. The Hikal company paid Rs 0.01 per liter of chemical and Rs 23 for the transportation to the Sangam environment private limited, as revealed in investigation. DeshGujarat