Pharma plant gas leak kills one, injures five in Maharashtra town

RAIGAD - An engineer working in a pharmaceutical company in Mahad, some 150 km south of Mumbai, died Tuesday afternoon after a gas leak in the firm’s manufacturing plant, police said.

“The incident occurred when some labourers complained of a gas leak on the second floor of the plant of Exon Laboratories,” a police officer told IANS.

An assistant manager, Parshuram B. Hongekar, went to investigate the leak along with other technicians. But the fumes proved lethal.

While Hongekar, 38, succumbed instantaneously, five labourers were injured.

“The victim hailed from Jalgaon, and is survived by his wife and a son who live in the company premises,” his colleague M. Rehman told IANS.

Meanwhile, top officials from the police and pollution control department rushed to the plant.

Exon Laboratories’ Mahad plant has been operational for the past 21 years. The firm is engaged in bulk drugs formulations.