Virudhunagar police on Saturday arrested Ponpaandi, one of the contractors of the firework unit, where a fire accident took place on Friday. The police have registered an FIR against five persons in relation to the case and are in search of four other persons.
Virudhunagar Superintendent of Police P Perumal confirmed the arrest to TNM and said that the others have not yet been apprehended. As of Saturday morning, 19 persons were killed and 35 persons have been admitted to the hospital due to injuries. Several of them have serious injuries.
Sree Mariyammal firework unit in Achankulam village near Sattur is reportedly leased to one Sakthivel, who subleased it to Ponpaandi and a few other contractors. The blaze started in the unit around 1 pm on Friday and rapidly spread to the other parts of the unit. Over 40 firefighters from three stations around the village -- Sattur, Sivakasi and Vembakottai -- were deployed to fight the fire and rescue those who were trapped inside the premises. It took the rescue personnel over three hours to bring the fire under control and bring out the people trapped inside. Nine bodies were recovered on the spot on Friday.
The postmortem on the deceased is underway at the district government hospital and a few bodies are yet to be identified. As per reports, around 70 persons were in the premises on Friday when the fire started.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami expressed his grief at the incident and announced a compensation of Rs 3 lakh each to the family of the deceased. He also said that those who suffered serious injuries will be given Rs 1 lakh. Prime Minister Modi also condoled the accident and announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to the family of the deceased and Rs 50,000 each to those who suffered serious injuries.