Telangana High Court Summons Investigating Officer In Sigachi Blast Case, Mulls Need For SIT Probe

The Telangana High Court on Thursday directed the Deputy Superintendent of Police, investigating the Sigachi Blast case, to appear before it on December 09, along with case diary and other relevant documents showing the progress of investigation.On 30th June, 20205, a fire broke out in the Sigachi Industries of Hyderabad in Sangareddy district, which was followed by an explosion, that took the lives of 46 individuals and left 8 individuals missing.A PIL was filed in the High Court, praying that all workmen, including migrant workers be paid compensation as promised by the industries, to ensure that the police act upon the FIR registered in connection with the explosion and punish all those responsible for the explosion. A Division Bench of the Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G. Mohiuddin observed, “In the aforesaid state of affairs, we deem it necessary to direct the Investigating Officer to be present before this Court on the 4 next date with the relevant records, case diary etc., connected with the investigation.”Following the incident and the PIL being taken up by the court, the State, through the Chief Secretary, filed a counter informing the relevant actions initiated by the concerned departments, including the fire department, the labour department, the factories department and the Pollution Control Board. The Bench was also informed that the State had formed an Expert Committee comprising four members from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and one member from the field of Fire and explosion forensics to investigate the explosion. Following the same, the bench had adjourned the matter for the filing of the Expert Committee Report. On Thursday, when the matter was taken up, the Additional Advocate General appearing on behalf of the State, informed the Court that a compensation of more than ₹22 cores was given to all the affected individuals/families and that almost 237 witnesses were examined as part of the investigation by the Police. The Bench, however, noted that there were no expert members examined as part of the investigation. The Bench also noted that the Police would not be equipped to understand the scientific details of the explosion and asked whether it would be appropriate to set up an SIT probe.Reassuring the Bench, the AAG stated that the police were supplied a copy of the Expert Committee Report and were relying on the same to assign guilt. The Bench, after going through the list of witnesses examined, noted that no officials of the regulating agency or employees of the Sigachi industries were examined to reach the root of the matter. “A perusal of the details of witnesses shows that the relatives of the deceased and injured workmen and some of the eye witnesses have been examined, whereas none of the officials of the regulating agency or the employees of respondent No.10 - Company has been examined to reach to the root of the matter.”Thus, the Bench directed the Investigating Officer to be present on the next date of hearing along with the relevant case material.Case no.: WP(PIL) 58 of 2025Counsel for the petitioner: Vasudha NagrajCounsel for Respondent: Additional Advocate General, Tera Rajinikath Reddy, assisted by Fareedunnisa HumaClick Here To Read/Download Order

Telangana High Court Summons Investigating Officer In Sigachi Blast Case, Mulls Need For SIT Probe

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