- Friday, April 25, 2025
By: India Weekly Staff
A five-member Punjab Police special investigation team (SIT) will probe the Giaspura locality gas leak incident in Ludhiana in the northern Indian state in which 11 people died after allegedly inhaling toxic gas, officials said on Monday (1).
The tragedy struck the densely populated area in Punjab’s industrial hub on Sunday (30).
District authorities said the locality underwent a night-long decontamination process, involving putting caustic soda in drains and sewerage lines to counter the hydrogen sulphide build-up.
Teams of the Punjab Pollution Control Board are looking into the possible reasons behind the build-up of the poisonous gas in the sewer that might have led to the incident, the officials said.
Traces of the gas are no longer present in the area, they added. Hydrogen sulphide, also called sewer gas, is poisonous and smells like rotten eggs.
It can lead to unconsciousness and death. Speaking to the media here, Ludhiana Police Commissioner Mandeep Singh Sidhu said the SIT will be led by deputy commissioner of police (investigation) Harmeet Singh Hundal.
He said the team would investigate if any industrial unit dumped waste in the sewerage line.
Sidhu said the police would seek cooperation of the Punjab Pollution Control Board on this, and if its officials do not cooperate, action would be taken against them too.
The officials earlier said the poisonous gas might have been released after some chemical was disposed of in the sewerage in the area.
The authorities are scouring through CCTV footage to confirm this. A magisterial inquiry has already been ordered, and police have registered a first-information report under Indian Penal Code’s section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) against unidentified persons.
The incident came to light on Sunday morning when some people, who had come to a grocery store in the Giaspura locality, fainted.
Four died on the spot, while the others were rushed to a hospital.
All the 11 deceased belonged to the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Giaspura has a very high migrant population. Several industrial and residential buildings are located there. Among the dead are three members of the family that owned the store and five from another.
The administration has announced Rs 2 lakh compensation each for the family of the deceased and Rs 50,000 each for those who were taken ill in the incident.
Meanwhile, Ludhiana deputy commissioner Surabhi Malik on Monday said the area has been decontaminated.
(PTI)
