Jaipur:
For days, India watched in horror as the flames leapt higher and wider into the air. At least ten people were killed, and more than a hundred injured in October last year, in a fire at the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) depot on the outskirts of Jaipur.
Nine Indian Oil officials have now been arrested for negligence. They include the man who was in charge of the IOC depot, Gautam Ghosh. He has been accused of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, which carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison, as well as criminal negligence.
A leak in a petrol pipeline allegedly caused the fire. The army was called in for help as all 12 tankers at the IOC depot went up in flames - 80 lakh litres of petrol were on fire. Lakhs of villagers who lived in the area were evacuated.
It took more than a week for the fire to die out. The losses for IOC are believed to be worth 300 crores.
Basic safety standards had been ignored by the IOC administration at their storage and distribution centre.