Cracker factory was illegal, case registered: Police

The firecracker manufacturing unit in a densely populated residential area in Punjab's Gurdaspur district where a fire claimed 23 lives was running illegally and its licence to manufacture crackers had expired in 2013, Senior Superintendent of Police Upinderjit Singh Ghumman said on Thursday.

"We didn't know about the (operation of the) factory. The licence of the factory expired in 2013," he told a news channel at the disaster spot.