KARACHI, Sept 19: The Judicial Magistrate-XII, Central, Abdul Zahoor Chandio, on Wednesday directed the investigation officer of the boiler explosion incident, which had taken place in the limits of Taimuria police station on July 24 this year, to personally appear in court on Sept 20 with a final charge-sheet against the accused, Akhtar Hussein Baloch.

The boiler had exploded in a towel-dyeing and bleaching factory in North Karachi, killing nine people and injuring another 25. A case had accordingly been registered against Akhtar Baloch, owner of the factory.

The IO, Mohammad Ilyas, had submitted an interim charge-sheet to the court on Aug 9 but the judicial magistrate had directed him to submit the final charge-sheet on Aug 29 so that the case could proceed further. However, the IO did not appear in court on that date.

Instead, he submitted an application stating that he could not make it due to his preoccupation with the investigations of some other cases.

The magistrate sent a complaint against him to the SSPs Central and West, CCPO, DIG and TPO of North Karachi on Aug 30, Sept 3, Sept 7 and Sept 10 telling them that the IO was not complying with the court’s orders.

Following the complaints, the IO appeared in court only to inform the judge that the process of preparing the final charge-sheet was delayed due to the parallel inquiry that was being conducted by an inspector of the industrial secretariat.

The court asked the IO to submit a complete report of the case without any further delay.

Meanwhile, a source stated that the IO had appeared in court on Sept 3 to seek three days for the submission of the required charge-sheet but he failed to submit it as yet. The delay was being caused by the non-submission of the report prepared by the inspector of the Boiler Inspection Wing of the Directorate of Industries, Anwar Ali, the source added.

The court then fixed Sept 7 for the compliance of its order, and directed Mr Anwar Ali to convey the report on his findings to the IO before the next hearing.

The FIR (359/07) of the case was registered at the Taimuria police station under Sections 322/H-2, 427 and 109 of the PPC. The factory owner was arrested soon after the blast but the boiler operator, Mohammed Ahsanullah, fled to his native town in Punjab to avoid arrest. He was arrested on July 31.

The factory is situated in Malik Anwar Goth, Sector 15-B, North Karachi.

IO Mohammad Ilyas told Dawn that he was in contact with the officials of the industrial secretariat and the district attorney for the preparation of the final charge-sheet.