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Prasad’s visually impaired father Gangaram blamed Chandrika Seth, engaged in refilling cylinders, for the incident. He and his wife Phoolna alleged that Shrawan had borrowed Rs 500 from Seth last month. “Unable to repay the sum, Chandrika forced Shrawan to work as a balloon seller for him,” said Gangaram. His allegations were seconded by another balloon-seller Sunil Seth, who was injured in a cylinder blast in Mughalsarai last Diwali. Sunil had received the cylinder from Chandrika. “At present, seven youths are working for Chandrika to repay money borrowed from him,” Sunil said.
Two persons were killed and nine injured in a similar gas cylinder explosion at Chowkaghat, Varanasi on January 14.
“It has come to our notice that gas cylinders are being filled beyond capacity or hydrogen cylinders are being spiked with carbide. We will launch a drive against the menace soon. We are also investigating into how cylinder fillers are providing loans to youth and then exploiting them in name of repayment,” said SP Rajiv Malhotra.
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