Navi Mumbai: Nearly seven days after a massive fire broke out at a chemical plant in Raigad district, the Mahad MIDC police on Friday arrested the maintenance head of the Sanpada-based pharma company Blue Jet Healthcare that owned the plant.

The fire had erupted after an explosion in the chemical plant of Blue Jet Healthcare at Mahad MIDC around 10.30am on November 3. Seven workers suffered injuries and were hospitalised, while 11 workers were reported missing. The fire was doused by fire brigade personnel around 5pm, but the administration had to summon the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) unit in Pune to carry out search and rescue operations owing to heat and the presence of chemicals inside the plant.

The NDRF team extricated 11 bodies in badly charred condition. They bodies were handed over to the families of the deceased after DNA sampling at Panvel rural hospital. Three of them belonged to other states and were identified as Abhimanyu Urao, and Jeevan Kumar Chaubey from Bokaro, Jharkhand, and Vikas Mahanto from Purulia, West Bengal. Eight others were from Maharashtra and were identified as Sanjay Pawar from Kharavli, Mahad; Akshay Sutar from Taliye, Mahad; Aditya More from Chochinde, Mahad; Shashikant Bhusaane from Nilanga, Latur; Somnath Waydande from Koregaon, Satara; Vishal Koli from Shirpur, Dhule; Aslam Shaikh from Karad, Satara; and Satish Salunke from Mahad.

On November 7, Mahad MIDC lodged an FIR under sections 304 (Punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 285 (negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible mat­ter), 286 (negligent conduct with respect to explosive substance) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. Shailesh Joshi, the maintenance head of Blue Jet Healthcare was arrested under these charges on Friday, said police.