KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Monday remanded in police custody the owner of a factory in the Keamari deaths case.

Police had arrested Khair Muhammad alias Sher Muhammad and booked him along with co-owners — Shahid Husain and Saeed Khan — of a plastic recycling factory over their alleged negligent conduct that led to emission of toxic fumes resulting in deaths of 18 residents of Ali Ahmed Goth over the last two weeks.

On Monday, the investigating officer (IO) produced the held factory owner before the judicial magistrate (West) to seek his physical remand for questioning and investigation.

The IO submitted that the suspect was running a plastic recycling factory from where toxic fumes were released in the area. He further informed that the emission had allegedly caused deaths of as many as 18 residents of the neighbourhood.

He alleged that the factory’s owners were running their operations without having put in place safety measures to ensure emission of the fumes after proper filtration through modern equipment.

He said the victims initially fell sick and later died presumably after inhaling the toxic fumes, as alleged by the complainants, whose relatives had also died in the same incident.

The IO pleaded the magistrate to grant 14-day physical remand of the suspect. However, the magistrate granted two-day physical remand of the suspect in police custody.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2023